Got Me Going Crazy
by sk8ergirl24
Summary: AU Shane Gray was going crazy. He was searching for a girl he had met all of 3 times. But it seemed he couldn't live without her. But she hates him. Will he ever get his chance with her? Smitchie.
1. Chapter 1

Hi, there! This would be my first Camp Rock fanfic. Though, not technically because I have about a dozen in my notebook at this point. But I liked this one the best, so here ya go. This will be sort of based off the JoBro song 'Got Me Goin Crazy' hence the the title. I'm sure you'll start noticing more though, the more you read the story.

I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: Ha. Yeah right. I don't even have to say it. I don't own. I promise.

* * *

"Shane, what the hell were you thinking?!" Seethed a _very_ pissed off Nate Addison, whom had just come back from a meeting with some very angry and threating record executives.

Shane carelessly looked up from the magazine he was reading, which of course had articles about himself, and glared at Nate. Nate always knew how to push Shane's buttons, but when he started shouting at him when he was trying to have some quiet time. But before he could say anything in retort, Nate started shouting again, pissing Shane off even more.

"You have _no_ idea how close were are to being dropped! Nigel nearly chopped my head off because of what you did! One more bad tabloid, Shane, one more, and Connect 3 is done!" Nate ranted angrily, starting to pace the small living space of the tour bus. Shane glowered at Nate, before tossing the magazine and pushing himself off the couch he was occupying and to his feet. Shane Gray didn't take crap like that from anyone. Especially someone who was supposedly his best friend.

"So I walked off stage, big whoop." Shane growled, crossing his arms defensively across his chest. Nate stopped pacing and glared coldly at Shane.

"You stormed off stage in front of twelve-thousand people, Shane, not even half way through the concert!" Nate retorted seethingly. But it didn't effect Shane in the least bit. In fact, Shane just laughed.

"Fine, then let them drop us, they'll be losing the best band they ever had."

Nate rolled his eyes and shook his head. "The only thing that's being lost here, is our fans, because of _your_ attitude. And we'll never get another record deal, once again, because of _your_ attitude. So get it together, Shane. And if we do get dropped, don't expect me or Jason to hang around you anymore. We're sick of it." Now there was pity laced in Nate's voice, and that's what pushed Shane nearly over the edge. If Nate hadn't have walked back to his room, he would've been punched.

Instead, Shane was stuck in the living room, filled with anger, and some regret. He scowled in the direction Nate just went in, deciding against sitting back down. He grabbed a hat and shoved it over his head as a disguise and stormed off the bus. Walking off his anger was better than sitting and letting it build. It was night time, and there was hardly anyone out to recognize him, so he figured it was a good time to get off the damned bus away from his two 'best friends'. Ever since the band hit it big, the guys had drifted away from Shane. They didn't seem to want what Shane wanted. They all started out loving just the music, and wanted to make it big so they could share it with everyone. But then Shane loved the fame. It started out simple and normal, but the bigger the got, the more Shane loved being the center of attention. They guys stayed the same, but Shane was the one that alway wanted more. And when he didn't get what he want, well let's just say he developed a terrible temper that often made an appearance.

But now it seemed Shane was always mad. The once soft hazel color of his eyes were now nearly black. He hadn't seen his natural eye color in a long time. He sighed heatedly and picked up his pace, trying to cool himself a little. But his temper once again flared when he felt someone collide with him. He saw red and whipped around to glare at the girl who had just run into him.

"Why don't you watch where you're going once in awhile?" He snarled.

The girl who had an apologetic look on her face, quickly disappeared when she heard him.

"Why don't you stop being an ass once in awhile?" She retorted smartly. Shane was taken aback by it, no one ever talked to him like that. Especially strangers.

"Excuse me? You can't talk to me like that, do you know who I am?" His ego was now making its own appearence. But it seemed to take no toll on the girl who stood defensively in front of him.

"Unfortunately, I _do_ know who you are, _Shane Gray_. And what gives_ you _the right to talk to people like you're talking to me? You're not the king of the world, even though you_ think_ you are." Confidence and annoyance shone through her voice. Shane just glared.

"What's your problem?" He demanded after not being able to come up with any kind of cheeky remark to what she said.

"I don't think I'm the one with problems around here, pop star. Your the one with the head stuck up your ass." She remarked with a glare. "Now if you'll excuse me I have better things to do then talk to a jerk with an ego."

She stalked away before Shane could get another word in. Not that he'd be able to anyway. He was stuck in his place, shocked that someone would say stuff like that to _Shane Gray._ No one talked to him like that and got away with it. Of course he'd never have to deal with it before, everyone was smart enough to stay away. Of course, there was one person who had enough guts to put him in his place. And he was currently glaring at her retreating back.

He scoffed and stuffed his hands into his pockets before turning around and going the opposite direction. Trying to ignore the strange feeling that the girl seemed to give him as she yelled at him. He glanced back over his shoulder, to find her already long gone. He just shook his head and kept walking.

* * *

Shane ended up doing absolutely nothing except walking around and cursing to himself, not being able to get the girl with an attitude out of his head. So finally he made his way back to the tour bus where he'll more than likely be bombarded with questions from Nate, probably along the lines of, 'Where the hell have you been? Do you have any idea what would happen if paparazzi caught you randomly walking down the street?!' Shane just rolled his eyes, not really caring what Nate had to say anymore.

He stalked onto the bus and was instantly greeted by Nate and the question Shane knew would come from his mouth. Shane just ignored him and easily pushed by him.

"Hey, Shane!" Jason said happily from his spot on the couch where he was holding his guitar on his lap. Shane once again ignored him and walked by him. Shane always thought Jason was way too happy.

"It's probably best if we go to bed now, you guys. We have a busy day tomorrow, and a concert that's pretty late. We need as much sleep as we can get. That is unless someone decides to blow everyone off again." Nate grumbled, directing his glare towards Shane.

Shane just rolled his and bluntly replied, "Go to hell, Nate." He snarled, stomping back into the main bedroom, which he always slept in. He was the front man, he needed the best bed on the bus. He didn't really want to listen to Nate, most of the time was built on downright ignoring him. But he was right, not that Shane would ever admit it to his face. But they did have a couple of interviews and photoshoots and not to mention a signing. Followed of course by a concert that night.

So with that thought, Shane got ready for bed, turned out the lights, and climbed under the covers. He figured he would be asleep the second he hit the pillow. He usually was. But this time, everytime he closed his eyes, the girl who told him off popped into his view. And it was then he remembered how gorgeous she was. He was too angry to notice it then. But now he could remember the soft brown of the girls eyes, though he didn't see much of them, seeing as they hardened the second he spoke. She had long, straight light brown hair, and she was extremely hot when she was angry, Shane thought with a smirk. He could only imagine what she was like when she wasn't mad. He sighed and closed his eyes, trying desperately to put thoughts of the girl to the back of his mind and get at least a decent sleep.

* * *

The morning had basically sucked for Shane. He hated interview where stupid people asked him stupid questions that he usually didn't answer. Photshoots sucked as well. They always wanted him to be happy, and Shane didn't do happy. Especially in photoshoots. Now he was stuck in the CD signing. Those were the worst of all. He was surrounded by annoying girls who screeched when they saw him. Of course it was a great ego booster, but it still annoyed the crap out of him. They always looked like they were about to faint when they walked up to the table. Those were the girls he liked. The girls he absolutely despised were the ones who tried their hardest to seduce him, by wearing the trampiest clothes possible and tried to act all flirty around him. It did nothing but piss him off.

There were still a couple hundred girls waiting to meet them, and Shane couldn't be more annoyed at this point. He had been through every type of girl possible, and he just stopped trying to be polite. He was positive he had been scowling at every autograph he signed. But his eyes nearly widened when he heard the same voice that had been yelling at him the night before. He snapped his head up only to be met by the same girl, who was now smiling politely at Nate, whom had just asked her name.

"Mitchie. Mitchie Torres."

Shane nearly smiled. It was a unique name. It fit the girl perfectly.

"Mitchie, huh?" Shane smirked, but it faded when her polite expression turned to a glare as she gazed at him. But he didn't let it effect him.

"You didn't come off to me as a Connect 3 fan." She glared at him.

"I never came off as a Connect 3 hater. But I was pretty sure I came off as someone who despised Shane Gray." She remarked lowly but with a raised eyebrow.

"So why are you here?"

"So I could get Nate and Jason's autographs. I'm not here for your autograph." She said with a fake sweet smile. "Thanks, guys." She said towards Nate and Jason's direction before walking off, not even bothering to give Shane a second glance. Shane's eyes widened as he looked over at Nate and Jason, who seemed just as shocked as to what just happened.

* * *

Ok, so I noticed as I wrote this that Mitchie's a little OOC. But it was fun writing her arguments with Shane.

So I hoped you like this. I'll probably update in a couple of a days, depending on how many reviews I get -hinthint-


	2. Chapter 2

You people seriously awesomeeee. I loved my reviews, and I'm soo glad you were ok with Mitchie's little personality switch.

So I decided that this will be a Smitchie and a Naitlyn. Probably just not a lot of Naitlyn in there, because this is mainly from Shane's point of view pretty much. But they'll be there. I promise!

And just for future reference, this is a high T rating, it won't go into any M, it won't be that bad. There might be bits of bad language here and there, and sexual references, but I won't go into any detail on that.

Disclaimer: Still don't own anything.

* * *

Chapter 2:

Shane Gray was pissed. Beyond his normal pissed. Even Nate knew not to come near him at the moment. Of course, partly because he and Jason were completely confused and shocked at what had happened at the CD signing. That girl who seemed to hate him and stopped at nothing to show it. _Mitchie_. He thought her name bitterly as he sat slouched on the couch he was sitting on. His arms were crossed and he was staring off in anger. No one had the right to treat him like that. He was Shane Gray for God's sake. He just needed to stop thinking about her altogether. He scoffed to himself. Yeah, right.

Whether he was pissed at her or not, he still couldn't shake the feeling that she gave him when he saw her, or even thought about her. It was this stupid warm feeling that seemed to pump through his veins, making him just wanna touch her in ways he shouldn't even be thinking about. And then there were the feelings that made him just want to smile and spend all his time around her. He didn't know what the hell it was. But he didn't like it. At least he didn't like it when he should've been completely pissed at her for treating him the way she did. But then again, there was the way he had treated her...

Before he could even begin to feel guilty, Nate finally decided to question him.

"Dude...who was she? Seemed like you knew her." He seemed genuinely curious. But Shane just glared at the floor harder. Part of him, no, most of him, wanted to talk about her. But the stubborn side of him wanted to just hate her and not ever talk about her. But that side didn't win.

"I had ran into her last night when I went on that walk. I was a jerk she was a jerk back." Shane shrugged in annoyance. More like she was a jerk who was completely right. He shook his head. No. She wasn't. She was the one who insulted him when she could've just walked away. Maybe she had temper problems. He didn't know. And he didn't care to know.

"What did she say?" Nate asked hesitantly.

"It doesn't matter!" Shane snapped, Nate just sighed. Shane hated being wrong. So when this girl gave him a reality check, he was pissed. Because she was right. And he was wrong.

"Whatever, man. Look, we've gotta get ready for the concert. Please don't storm off the stage again, Shane." Nate pleaded before standing up and going to get ready.

Shane sighed, and followed soon after. He prayed that the concert would get his mind off everything.

* * *

Connect 3 was just about to make their big entrance, and Shane was of course, completely confident. Nate and Jason were always excited and somewhat nervous to get on stage and play in front of all those adoring fans. Shane could care less at this point. He still couldn't get Mitchie out of his head. And it was starting to seriously get on his nerves. He just wanted to get the show over with.

Finally, the band made their entrance, and Shane tried to block out all the screeching fans that could possibly make him go deaf. That also got on his nerves. None of the fans took the time to listen to the music anymore. All they cared about were the guys and their looks. Shane would bet that most of them hated the music and just went their to see himself and the guys. That's all everyone cared about anymore. Much to the point that there was no reason to even bother writing their own songs anymore, seeing as no one would probably listen to them anyways. So Shane had stopped contributing to that.

He scowled as he looked out at all the fans who probably didn't even care that the music started. He shook his head and held back a groan of annoyance and reluctantly started singing to the song.

For most of the concert he stayed glued to the same spot, not bothering to run around or show any excitement whatsoever. At least he hadn't stormed off the stage. Yet. They were in the middle of one of the last songs when Shane suddenly saw her. In the front row, looking out of place compared to all the girls in the front row who had their hands outstretched and were screaming their throats dry. Mitchie was just standing there with her arms crossed. He couldn't tell if she wanted to be there or not. She had caught his gaze, and her face screamed confusion. He was curious as to why, but finally realized he had stopped singing, making the entire song stop abruptly. What amused him was that some of the fans didn't even care.

He didn't care either. He was too busy staring at Mitchie. Why? He didn't know. He was captivated and intrigued. And curious. Because she wasn't looking away either. They just stood there, staring at each other. Until Nate finally got fed up and not so subtly gave Shane a shove. Shane snapped his head towards Nate's direction, nearly smirking at the look of annoyance showing on his band mates face.

Shane looked back toward Mitchie, but found her not even looking up at the stage anymore. He sighed.

"S-Sorry." He apologized into the microphone. He didn't dare meet Nate's gaze again. But before he knew it, the music started up again, and so did the crowd. Shane sang, but showed no emotion as he tried to catch Mitchie's gaze once again. She didn't look up for the rest of the concert.

* * *

Shane was actually somewhat excited to get to the meet and greet. Just because he was praying Mitchie would be there. He was unsure as to why he wanted to see her so badly, he was supposed to be mad at her. But he couldn't be. And he didn't know why. But he didn't care anymore. He just wanted to see her.

"Nate! Come on! We've got to get to the meet and greet!" Nate was surprised that it was Shane that called that out. Shane was equally as surprised, but pushed it from his thoughts.

"I'm coming, man. Geez." Nate mumbled, coming out of the bathroom after attempting to fix his curls. Shane rolled his eyes, but proceeded down the hallway to where the meet and greet would take place. Jason was close behind Nate.

They walked through the door just to be met by excited shrieks and screaming. Shane sighed. He really hoped Mitchie was gonna be there. Or else he might pull his hair out. He sat down and instantly slouched in the rather uncomfortable chair. The fans were already lined up, and as soon as they let them go, the first ones were nearly sprinting towards the table, practically shoving Connect 3 merchandise in their faces. Shane begrudgingly grabbed something and signed it, nearly shoving it back at them.

The process went on for at least an hour when he saw her again. He nearly jumped out of his chair when he saw her in line, talking to someone next to her, her arms crossed neatly over her chest. She didn't look to happy. That worried him. She'll probably jump down his throat if he even dared say hi to her. But he wanted to say something to her. He had to. He had been waiting for. He had agreed to do the stupid meet and greet for her. He couldn't chicken out now. It wasn't like he hadn't talked to her before. Of course, it didn't count. They were arguing. Not exactly a great conversation.

He quickly signed everything that came at him, not bothering to look up at any one of the fans. He kept his eyes on Mitchie. Finally, after what felt like hours she and her friend were finally in front of the table. Shane lost his breath as she stood between him and Nate. But she didn't look at him. She was looking at Nate, who was talking to her friend.

"What's your name?" Nate asked politely, getting ready to sign the poster the other girl gave.

"Caitlyn." The girl said breathlessly, obviously someone who absolutely adored Nate. Nate looked towards Mitchie after handing the Connect 3 over to Jason, who happily, of course, scribbled his name on it. Jason looked cautiously down at Shane before reaching across the table to give it to him. Shane didn't even notice. He was still looking up at Mitchie. That is, he was until Nate not so subtly nudged him for the second time that night. Shane blinked and looked down at the poster and signed his name in his sloppy handwriting over his picture.

He smiled politely, surprising everyone, and handed the poster back to Caitlyn. Caitlyn grinned and went to say thanks before Mitchie started pulling her away. Shane was quick to stop them.

"What about you?" Mitchie stopped and turned to look at Shane, glaring slightly.

"I got autographs this afternoon." She spoke slowly, not exactly wanting to be there. Shane smirked.

"You didn't get mine."

"I thought I made it pretty clear that I didn't want yours." He could tell she was getting annoyed now. His smirked broadened as he leaned back against the chair, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You never gave me a valid reason." He cocked his head to the side, smirk still ever so present. He could easily tell it was pissing her off.

"Because you're a jerk with an ego. I'm surprised anyone wants your autograph." She spoke through clenched teeth, getting even more fed up with Shane's persistence. Shane just scoffed, his expression not changing.

"It seems like everyone else here wants it." He stated cockily. Her glare turned stony.

"Maybe I'm the only one with a brain here. No offense, Caitlyn." She said quickly to her friend before turning her glare back on Shane. "I'm obviously the only one who can see how big of an idiot you are. You think I couldn't see how you acted on stage. You don't care about your fans. In fact, it seems you don't care about anyone but yourself. You need a serious reality check and maybe someone to smack some sense into you. I don't want to even be talking to you. That said, let's go, Caitlyn."

She growled and stormed away from the table, Caitlyn following close behind, trying not to laugh. Shane's face lost expression with every word she spoke. He was shocked, surprised, and slightly hurt. He didn't even notice other fans come up. In fact, all he did was stand up and storm away from the table. He could practically feel Nate's glare burning a hole through him. Bur he shook it off. He didn't care anymore. Now he was just down right pissed off.

He didn't realize he was pacing until Nate stormed into the room.

"Shane, you _cannot_ storm off like that!"

"Did you hear what she said to me?! No one can talk to me like that!" Shane shouted, but Nate just laughed. Shane looked at him like he was crazy. "Did you hear what I just said?" He demanded.

"And did you hear what she said?" Nate laughed, amused at how completely dense Shane was. "She's right, Shane. Someone needs to give you a reality check. But I think she did that for you."

"What makes you say that?" Shane grumbled, annoyed that everyone was turning against him.

"Because no matter how hard Jason and I try to give you a reality check, you won't listen because you think we're doing it for good press. But when a stranger tells you, you start thinking about it. And you know she's right, too. You're just too damn stubborn to admit it." Nate explained.

Shane just glared. Damn it. He was right, too. He mumbled angrily to himself before storming out of the building in the direction that the tour bus was at. But he stopped when he heard voices talking. Familiar voices.

"Oh my, God. That's Connect 3's tour bus!"

"Caitlyn, chill. They're just people. Sort of." Mitchie! He scowled just listening to her voice.

"Mitch, come on, how can you not be excited about this?"

"Because as much as I love Nate and Jason, I absolutely despise the other one and it creeps me out that I can practically feel his ego just standing within a hundred feet of him." She ranted angrily.

Shane scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. But he still couldn't help but to listen a little bit more.

"Mitch, come on. You hardly know the guy, I mean maybe he's not as bad as the press makes him out to be. Jesus, Mitch, you used to be totally in love with the guy. What happened?" Shane was now officially intrigued. She used to like him? She had an odd way of showing it. Wait...used to?

"I did, Cait. I really did. You know I did. I didn't care that the press talked about him like that, because they don't usually know anything at all. Or maybe was he was just misunderstood or something. But then I bumped into him on the street, and he was just...terrible. He was a jerk and rude. I was so disappointed to find out he was worse then what the press said. It's like he's just naturally angry. I thought he was a person I could relate to, just because his music and lyrics, ya know? Every time I talked to him he was either cocky or a jerk."

Confusion washed over Shane after her little monologue. She _used_ to be a fan of his? And then just stopped? He scoffed. Once a fan always a fan. At least that's how it was supposed to be. He glared for a moment before walking over towards the pair, who were about to walk away.

"Hey!" He shouted, making both of them jump in surprise. They both had different expressions when they figured out it was him. Caitlyn's eyes were wide with shock and surprise. Mitchie's eyes were blazing with rage. Another hole was burned through him. Once again he didn't care.

"What, you're spying on me now?" She questioned, absolutely furious. He was too. Caitlyn seemed rather amused, and slightly frightened.

"How much of that did you hear?" She demanded. He merely smirked and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I heard plenty. Enough to know that you were a fan, all up until last night, apparently."

He had never seen a girl glare so hard in his life. But it didn't shake him. It made his smirk broaden.

Mitchie was nearly shaking in anger now. "Yeah, I was, then I realized how big of an asshole you are." He glared at her, smirk still on his face.

"Once a fan, always a fan. You can't just stop."

She laughed bitterly and shook her head. "Of course I can. I used to have some respect for you, I used to like, then I met you. Not everyone's in love with just your looks, Shane. And I never liked you because of that. I liked you because of your music, because of the lyrics and emotion you put into them. Then you became _this._ How does it feel to lose a _true_ fan, Shane?"

Shane was shocked. But he didn't show it. Instead, he glared harder at her.

"I don't need fans like you anyway." She shook her head.

"No, Shane, fans like me are _exactly_ what you need. Obviously." Her voice was filled with pity. That pissed him off more than ever.

"Have fun with the fans that don't care about you or your music. Ya know, the ones who just use you to get famous? Because, those are the only type of fans you have left, pop star." With that, she and a very amused Caitlyn, left.

* * *

So this chapter was rewritten about 3 times. I couldn't seem to get it. haha. But I hope you like it. Because I don't like it all that much.

Reviews are more than welcome... I promise I'll update quicker with more reviews!


	3. Chapter 3

I'm sort of unsure about this chapter, I liked it and I didn't. But your reviews were awesome, so you deserve another chapter.

Disclaimer:Nope.

Chapter 3

* * *

Shane was absolutely stunned. No had _ever_ said something like that to him before. And he would die happy if he never heard it again. But was she right? He quickly shook that thought off the second it came to mind. He hated her. She hated him. She couldn't be right. She was completely wrong. She didn't know him. And she sure as hell didn't know half the fans he had. He still had some real fans out there. Not that he had met any. He didn't bother to even look at most of the ones that approached him. But he was sure he did.

He watched Caitlyn and Mitchie's retreating backs, well, more like glaring. Obviously Mitchie was the only person to get im as pissed off as he was right now. Because he surely has never felt so mad in his life. He growled lowly to himself as he turned on his heel and stomped away towards the tour bus. He pulled open the door with incredible force, and stormed up the steps. As soon as he entered the living area, he kicked the first thing that came into view. The wall. He shouted angrily as his foot connected with the wall. He had to find someway to release his anger that had built up inside him ever since he met Mitchie.

He attempted to breath deeply, a method Nate had tried to teach him to control his anger. Or at least calm down enough as to not destroy anything. He let a shaky breath before dropping on the couch with his head in his hands. He never expected to get told off by a girl he talked to all of 4 times. Given, she had told him off every single time with no mercy whatsoever.

Maybe she was right. Though he'd never admit it, he did seem to be losing fans. Less people were coming to concerts, stadiums weren't exactly getting filled. Though there were well over ten thousand people at each concert, tickets weren't exactly at the top of everyone's 'To-Buy' lists. It made him wonder how many _true _fans he really had. Or if he lost them all, as Mitchie said.

"Damn it." He cursed. "She is right." He groaned and fell back against the back of the couch. But the second he did, Nate came bounding up the bus steps and into view.

"I hope you're happy. We had to end the meet and greet early because all the fans wanted to meet _you." _Nate's bitter voice didn't help Shane in the least bit.

"What, all the fans that say they're in love with me but really just want me to like them and then be all over magazines?" Shane was bitter as well.

Nate looked at Shane confused that he would even care about that. He didn't care about the fans at all. Usually anyways.

"Where'd you get an idea like that?"

"Mitchie."

Nate laughed, "The girl who told you off. Repeatedly?" Shane's glare instantly made Nate stop laughing.

"Sorry. What did she say to you?"

"She didn't exactly say it _to_ me, I...overheard her and her friend."

"So you were spying?

"No!" He defended loudly. "I was just going out to the bus and I overheard them talking about me, and I just got curious!"

Nate shrugged and held his hands up in surrender.

"Alright, alright, calm down. So what were they talking about?"

Shane sighed. "Mitchie was talking about how she used to be a fan of mine, and then when she ran into me last night, that all went down the drain and she lost all possible respect for me."

Nate raised his eyebrows. "And that bothers you? That she used to like you, and now she hates you because she actually knows you? That must suck." Nate laughed.

"Thanks for caring." Shane glared sarcastically. "I don't like being hated! And for her to have the nerve to actually tell me off..." He trailed off angrily.

"You like her." Nate concluded.

"What?!" Shane shouted loudly in disbelief. "What the hell are talking about?!" He demanded.

"You like her." Nate said, now laughing.

"I do _not_ like her!"

"Yeah, Shane, ya do."

"I do not!" Shane cried angrily.

Nate stopped laughing. "Oh my, God, you really _do_ like her!"

"Where the hell are you getting this from?!"

"Dude, I know you better than anyone else on this planet. You like her, and I'm saying _like_-like her, because she's got enough nerve to put you in your place. And she doesn't take any crap from you or anyone else, apparently. She's exactly your type of girl. And she used to like you!"

"Keyword, used to." Shane glared. Nate just shook his head and laughed.

"Admit it."

"There's nothing to admit. I don't like her!'

"Yes, you do." Shane glowered at Nate, who just laughed even more.

"No. I. Don't."

"Yes. You. Do."

"Okay, fine! I like her!"

Nate smiled in triumph and nodded his head. "That's what I thought."

"But she hates me, so what the hell does it matter anyways?"

"Because you need her if you want to get back to the way you were. Ya know, caring about the music and the fans. And not the fame? She's the only person who can tell you what the true fans want from you."

Shane looked up at him and blinked. He was right. As usual. Shane needed her. In more ways than one.

"How do I find her?"

"I don't know, dude. Maybe you'll get lucky." Nate shrugged, before leaving Shane alone to his thoughts.

Did Shane _really_ like Mitchie. He found it nearly impossibly to believe, she acted like such a bitch sometimes. And he had only spoken, argued, with her four times. But maybe that was why he liked her. Because she was tough, and not like any of the other girls who threw themselves at him. She stood up for herself and wasn't afraid to tell it how it is. And it helped that she was extremely gorgeous. Of course, he hadn't yet had the honor of seeing her when she wasn't pissed. But he was sure she'd be just as pretty, if not more so.

He sighed sleepily, finally managed to fall asleep on the couch, with thoughts of none other than Mitchie keeping him company.

* * *

He woke up to the sound of the television blasting something he wasn't exactly sure of. He groaned and slightly opened his eyes, only to see Jason staring intently at the screen, which seemed to be playing the Spongebob. Shane rolled his eyes, or at least as much as he could without opening them fully. He pushed himself up into a full sitting position, groaning lightly at the stiffness of his neck.

"Morning, sleepyhead!" Jason's overly cheery voice greeted.

"Jase, it's too early for you to be so happy."

"Are you kidding? It's noon. You overslept." He shrugged, not waiting for a response as he turned back to the television set.

Shane groaned and opened his eyes all the way, finally being able to check the time, and notice that Jason was indeed right. It was just a little past noon.

"Where are we?"

"Same town. The bus broke down just as we were a few blocks away from the venue. We're stuck here until they can fix it."

Shane's head snapped up, a slight smile on his face. If he was in the same town, there was a better chance he'll see Mitchie again.

"I'm going for a walk." He said quickly and practically ran off the bus.

He didn't know where he was going to start looking for her. She could be anywhere. But he didn't lose hope. Of course, even if he did find her, she probably wouldn't exactly be thrilled to see him. But he would never know until he tried.

And tried he did. For about an hour and a half he spent aimlessly wandering around, hoping to run into Mitchie. He couldn't believe he thought that would happen. He rolled his eyes at himself, and a moment later felt his stomach growling. He sighed and looked around to see if there were any restaurants were around. He caught sight of only one place. Barney's Burgers. He shrugged to himself and crossed the street, watching out for cars and crazy fans.

He stepped into the building, instantly greeted by a wave of air, courtesy of the intense air conditioning. The place had about one or two customers. That was good for him, bad for the restaurant. He didn't take two steps farther into the building when he saw her. He had to bite his lip as to not look like an idiot from smiling. She was smiling as she spoke with another one of the employees, and it was then he saw how much more gorgeous she was when she was happy. Given she was totally hot when she was pissed, in his opinion, but he was left speechless as he watched her smiling and seeming genuinely happy.

He gulped. He was pretty sure he was about to ruin her happiness. In fact, he was so worried that he would, he was about to walk out, that is until she finally turned her head and caught is gaze. Shit. He was right. The smile instantly disappeared, and he could tell she had to force herself not to scowl at him. He watched her as she huffed and walked over to him.

"What are you doing here?" Shane smirked, a habit he seemed to have whenever he was talking to her.

"Now, Mitchie, is that any way to greet a paying customer?"

"You actually plan on paying? I thought you just threw a fit to get out of paying for anything." His smirked disappeared, replaced with a frown.

"Will you just get me a table?"

She rolled her eyes and lead him to a table that sat in practically the center of the room.

"Here, you like being the center of attention, so here's your table."

He grumbled but plopped into the seat anyways, opening the menu Mitchie had just handed to him.

"Alright, what do you want?"

"You." He said without thinking, making his eyes widen in shock.

"Excuse me?!"

"I mean to talk! I want to talk to you!" He quickly recovered, blushing slightly at her suspicious gaze.

"Why?"

He sighed heavily and placed the menu back down in front of him so he could look up at her. He bit his lip, trying to choose his words carefully.

"I wanted to apologize."

She scoffed and shook her head.

"I'm sure you do. But I don't wanna hear it. So tell me what you want. And I mean _to eat_." He blushed again.

"I'm serious. I was a jerk. And you were right."

"I told you, I don't want to hear it, Shane. I could care less about your apology right now. And besides, you don't deserve my forgiveness."

"I'm not really like that!"

"Oh really? Well, it seems to me, you are. I had hoped you weren't, but I learned my lesson. Now tell me what you want, or I will get someone else to help you."

He sighed and looked up at her, seeing exactly how fed up she was.

"Just a burger and diet coke." He mumbled.

She nodded and walked off.

He watched her until she disappeared into the back room. He groaned and put his head in his hands. This was a bad idea. Worse then what he imagined. He really was apologizing. He really wanted her forgiveness. And he really wanted to just talk to her. She just needed to give him the time of day.

* * *

The exchange between Nate and Shane was really fun to write. So I hope you liked that. And the rest of the chapter. I can't decide when Mitchie should start calming down and give Shane a chance. So I'll ask you! Would you rather Mitchie forgive him sooner, or for them to keep up this kind of, hate type relationship and let it play out longer?

Soo I would love if you guys helped me with that. Remember, more reviews, more updates!


	4. Chapter 4

I was overwhelmed by your amazing reviews, I was smiling so much I'm surprised I have face left. haha Anyways, I hope you like this chapter

Chapter 4

* * *

Shane sat in silence, eating the burger Mitchie had delivered about ten minutes ago. They hadn't talked at all. She brought him a drink, his burger, and then left him alone. He kept stealing glances at her the entire time. But she was never looking back. She was either talking to the other waitresses, or just doing her job when other customers came in. Luckily no one recognized him. Yet, anyways. There was always that one person who started it off. But this time, maybe it was a good thing...

"Oh my, God! It's Shane Gray!" Shane didn't even care who it was that shrieked. He panicked. And for good reason. Not a moment later all eyes were on him. Not to mention the girl who shrieked was outside, therefore making everyone on the street freak out and rush to the restaurant. He was instantly surrounded by girls and, even a few guys. He gulped and looked around desperately, but was only able to see the crazy people that surrounded him and the questions that bombarded him. These people felt more like paparazzi then just fans. It all just became noise after the first few seconds.

Not a moment too soon, he felt a hand grab his arm and pull him out of the crowd of people. Fans tried to lash out at him, but the other person pulling him away was stronger. And before he knew it, he was being thrown into the back room of the restaurant. He had to catch his breath as he looked around, trying to clear his vision, only to be met by Mitchie slamming, and locking, the door.

She let out a breath and turned to face him. "Good. Lord. You have some crazy fans."

He shrugged sheepishly, surprising her, seeing as she was expecting some cheeky or cocky remark.

"Sorry." He mumbled, leaning against the wall behind him, crossing his arms over his chest out of habit. He raised his eyebrows though when he noticed her looking at him curiously.

"What?"

"Why do you keep apologizing?"

Shane scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. What kind of question was that?

"Maybe because I want to? And that I need to apologize to you for acting like a jerk. And getting you caught up in that mess." He gestured towards the door, which led to the commotion outside of it.

"Why should I believe you? I mean, you're a spoiled pop star."

"I prefer the term, rock star, thank you. And you don't even know me." He defended himself.

"No, I don't know you. But I don't have to. The press seems to have you figured out."

"You can't always believe what you hear."

"That's just the point. I didn't believe them."

He stayed quiet after that, remembering what she had said to Caitlyn about not listening to the press until she had actually met him. He sighed.

"Then you met me." He muttered quietly to himself. But she heard, and she nodded her head.

"So you really were a fan, huh?" She shrugged, but nodded her head again. "Why? Why didn't you listen to the press, or HotTunes or anything else that played me off as the bad boy?"

She was silent and thoughtful for a moment. But he waited patiently and curiously. "Because when I listened to your lyrics, they said otherwise. I mean, they were so thoughtful and meaningful that it just didn't seem that you could be that bad of a person. When I ran into you...I was shocked. Like completely and utterly shocked. You were so mad and cocky that it was almost hard to believe that it w_as_ you. I didn't want that person to be you." She admitted quietly, not daring to look at Shane.

He was silent. Taking in all of her words and playing them through his mind over and over again. They sat in silent for a few moments, not looking at each other, just thinking.

Then a knock on the door disrupted both of their thoughts. Mitchie stood up quickly and unlocked the door, opening it to reveal what Shane knew was the manager of the restaurant.

"Alright, so the coast is clear, Shane you can leave without being hounded by anybody."

Shane thanked him as he left. He pushed himself off the wall and over to Mitchie.

"Thanks...for getting me out of that mess."

"Your welcome."

Silence.

"Uh...you should probably...go."

He nodded his head and walked past her and out the back room door, back into the front of the restaurant. She followed shortly after him.

He bit his lip and stopped abruptly, making Mitchie nearly run into his back. He turned on his heel to face her. She looked up at him confused and curious. Before she could question him, he spoke up.

"Can I see you again?"

She was shocked by his question. She never expected him to ask something like that.

"Uh...I don't...know. Aren't you on tour?"

"Yeah, but the bus is broken down, and it'll probably be a couple more days."

"Why do you want to see me again anyways? I'm sure there are plenty of other girls vying for your attention."

"Yeah, but I don't wanna hang out with any of those girls. Please? What about tonight?"

"I have to work."

"No she doesn't!" Mitchie glared towards the back room where she knew her boss was smirking before turning back to Shane and huffing.

"What? You don't wanna hang out with me? Everyone wants to hang out with Shane Gray." He laughed lightly, but she only managed to glare at him. His popstar ego came out once again, and Mitchie wasn't too happy about it. At all.

"I guess I'm not everyone. Because I _don't_ want to hang out with you." She spoke with a bitter edge to her voice. Shane stopped laughing and frowned.

"Why not?" He demanded. Getting really irritated with her determination to apparently not get to know him. "I've tried apologizing! Why the hell won't you forgive me?"

"What have you done to deserve my forgiveness? Saying you're sorry doesn't always fix things, pop star. Sorry you didn't get that memo." She said with a sarcastic bitterness.

"You know what, fine. I don't even know why I'm trying so hard to have you forgive me. You're just another fan." He glared before starting out the door.

"I'm not a fan. Remember?" Shane froze, but didn't turn back around to look at her, or to remark about her words, he just stormed down the sidewalk, making a mental note to never go back into that place again.

* * *

Shane Gray _always_ got what he wanted. Everything he ever asked for, he got. So it was an understatement to say he didn't know why the hell Mitchie was being so damn stubborn. Every girl wanted Shane, whether they hated him or not. he just didn't understand it. But he didn't care anymore. She wasn't worth the fight. At least he hoped she wasn't. Yes, he liked her. But yes, he also hated her. She couldn't give him one fucking chance.

Shane shook his head and sighed before jumping back onto the tour bus, once again seeing Jason and Nate in their respective spots on the couch and chair. Nate holding a guitar and Jason trying to figure out how to work his iPod. Nate was the first to notice the angered Shane as he plopped down next to him on the couch.

"How did the search go?" Nate asked cautiously, knowing that one thing could set Shane over the edge.

"She won't give one fucking minute!" Shane roared, making Jason drop his iPod in shock and shoot his head up to look at Shane with wide eyes.

"That good, huh?" Nate said calmly, shaking his head and pushing his gaze back to his guitar, knowing there was a full on Shane rant coming.

"I don't get it! All she has to do is go on one date with me! Not even a date! Just...lunch! But no, she has to be so damn stubborn about it, and I just don't fucking get it! _Every_ girl would kill just to talk to me, and she won't even do that!"

That got Nate's attention. His gaze once again averted to a red faced Shane.

"Maybe _that's_ you're problem." Nate spoke accusingly.

"Excuse me?" Shane asked, ready to blow up again.

"You think you're so perfect and that everyone loves you just because of who you are. The girls that you're referring to don't want to hang out with you. They want to get famous and maybe make out with you a couple of times so they'll have a story to tell their friends. Mitchie doesn't want that, apparently. Maybe she wants someone who she can talk to and laugh with. She can't have that with you and your ego."

Shane was shocked. Nate had never said anything like that to him before. The sensible part of him knew he was right, but the rest of him just wanted to hit him. The rest of him won. And he was even shocked at himself for the first few seconds he saw Nate and his guitar fall off the couch and onto the ground clutching his jaw and looking at Shane incredulously.

There was a shocked silence for a minute, all the boys to stunned to move.

"Shane. Come with me. Now." All three boys whipped their heads to looked to the front of the bus, Nate wincing once he felt the sharp pain in his jaw. All eyes were met with Connect 3's manager. Nigel.

Shane gulped before looking down at Nate, who was just scowling at him.

He reluctantly stood up, and walked to the back of the bus, a furious manager following closely behind him, stopping briefly to look at Nate.

"Go put some ice on that and then get off the bus for a little while." He demanded quietly before going to talk to Shane.

Nate just watched him for a minute, still in shock, but was now more furious than anything. A few minutes went by before Nate finally stood up and walked off the bus.

Shane had never hit him before. Sure, he threatened, but he never actually punched him like that. His jaw felt like it was on fire, but he chose to ignore it as he walked aimlessly down the surprisingly empty sidewalk as far away from the bus as he could.

He didn't know what happened to Shane. He used to be his best friend. They had a vow to never get caught up in it. Shane was the only one to break it. It infuriated Nate. More then anything. He, Shane, and Jason were like brothers. Sometimes Nate just regretted ever getting into a band with them. He loved it, more than anything. But honestly. He could do without Shane and his attitude. He was never the one who had the best temper, but it just seemed to get worse.

Nate shook his head and directed his gaze to the ground. The next time he looked up he was at an unfamiliar place. He must've walked farther than he thought. Oh well. He shrugged and looked up to see where he was, to be met by a sign on a building that said Barney's Burgers. He could go for a burger.

There didn't seem to be too many people in there, so he walked into the building, hearing the 'ding' of the bell as he opened the door. The one thing he didn't expect to see was Mitchie standing there. From the look on her face she wasn't expecting to see him either.

"Uh...hi." Nate said awkwardly. "Mitchie...right?"

She just nodded her head and sighed. "Nate, right?" He nodded back at her.

"Never did I imagine seeing two members of Connect 3 in here on the same day. So, can I get you a--What happened to your face?" She said, almost shocked.

Nate gulped quietly. He almost forgot about the pain in his jaw, until he remembered it was there. He shifted uncomfortably in his spot and shrugged.

"Shane and I kinda got into a misunderstanding." He said as honestly as he could. Her eyes widened considerably.

_"Shane_ did that to you?!" She all but shrieked. Nate nodded slowly.

"Oh my, God, it's swollen. Here, come with me, you need to put some ice on it." She grabbed his wrist and pulled him farther into the building, he knew not to argue, so he just followed obediently. She ended up pulling him into the back room, letting him sit on one of the tables while she got some ice for him.

It was silent until she tentatively put the ice on his face, making him flinch from the cold contact.

"Jesus, that's cold!" He tried to pull his face away, but Mitchie and the ice followed him.

"Yeah, that's supposed to help it--Stop pulling away, you'll get used to it in about seconds." He still pulled his head away. She rolled her eyes and resorted to cupping her hand around the back of his neck and keeping his head still, then putting the ice on his face where he once again flinched.

"There, now stay still, it won't be as bad in a few seconds." Nate waited for a few seconds, and sure enough it stopped bothering him enough for her to drop her hand away from the back of his neck. But he continued to let her hold the ice to his jaw.

It was silent for a few moments before Mitchie finally broke it. "So...what exactly happened between you and Shane?"

Nate sighed, contemplating carefully on whether he should tell her or not. He knew she was already unhappy with Shane, this might just make it worse. But for some reason, he couldn't deny her curious brown eyes that he couldn't seem to look away from.

"He was mad that you wouldn't go out with him, and I kind of said the right thing at the wrong time." He watched as shock and anger took the place of curiosity in her eyes. She didn't say anything for a few moments.

"What's his problem?" Nate scrunched his eyebrows at her question. "I mean, is there some deeper meaning to his attitude...or did he really just get caught up in it all?" Her tone sounded almost sad, and it made Nate sigh. He had to give her the answer he knew she didn't want.

"He got caught up." He watched the disappointment flash in her eyes and he swore he could feel the breaking of his heart. "I'm sorry. I know that's not the answer you wanted."

She sighed. "Why? Why was it just him, why are you and Jason so grounded?"

"Because more people like him. The front man always gets more attention, therefore, the more he got, the more he wanted."

She scoffed lightly. "How do you handle him? I mean, how often do you get punched like this?"

"Never. This is a first. He always threatens, but this is the first he did it. He didn't even give a warning. You must have some affect on him." Now he watched as guilt flashed in her eyes, and he immediately regretted his words. She pulled the ice away from his face and placed it on the table next to him.

"I'm sorry, I--"

"Don't apologize." Nate jumped in quickly. "It was just a matter of time before he snapped like that anyways. It's not your fault." He promised, but she was having none of that.

"But if I hadn't rejected him, he wouldn't have been so angry and you wouldn't have a bruise on your jaw." She insisted.

"Mitch, I promise, it's not your fault."

"Yes it is." She mumbled.

Nate sighed and jumped off the table to stand in front of her. He grinned lightly. "Well if you're not gonna give it up, then you'll just have to make it up to me. There's an Italian place down the street that I've been wanting to try."

He watched as Mitchie smiled and nodded her head before checking her watch. "Alright, my shift is ending anyways, I guess I can handle lunch with you. Just let me clock out and we can go."

Nate smiled and nodded his head before walking back out in the restaurant with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face. He had a lunch date with Mitchie.

Shane was going to kill him.

* * *

Ohh betcha didn't see that one coming. Don't hate me. haha. I promise this is _not_ a Nitchie, but this gave me a way to draw out the love/hate relationship with Shane and Mitchie just a little bit, because honestly it's pretty hard to write about them basically hating each other. But I'll do it, because it's also really fun to have Mitchie telling Shane off.

Anyways, your reviews were _awesome_, so now you should keep it up, because I can't wait to see what you think of this chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

Sooooooooooooooooooo sorry that it took so long for me to update, I haven't had too much time for writing when school started, it's my first year of high school, so it was kinda hard to get used to, but any free time I have I'm usually writing, so I'll try and not take as long as I did this time.

* * *

The date had been going a lot better than Mitchie had ever expected. Especially considering that she was with a member of Connect Three. Shane was really the only one she had ever had the chance of talking to, and his egotistical and arrogant personality made her rather uneasy and hesitant about getting to know Nate or Jason. But now, eating lunch with Nate, it was almost impossible to think of him as one third of the biggest band in the world. He was so sweet and down to earth it was hard to believe that he was friends with Shane. They were so different. Given, Mitchie didn't know Shane before he got a big head, but now, she couldn't imagine Nate ever being able to put up with him.

Throughout the entire lunch, they had barely spoken of Shane. The only time he was ever really mentioned was when Mitchie asked how the band had gotten together. Mitchie didn't really want to talk about Shane anyways. She was afraid it would ruin the fun she was having with Nate. He was so considerate and thoughtful, and everything Mitchie looked for in a guy. And they just seemed to click automatically.

Nate felt the exact same way. He was never one to really open up and talk to a person so easily, especially someone like Mitchie. She was pretty loud, and rather opinionated, and completely opposite of himself. But she was so easy to talk to, and she was sweeter then he ever could've imagined. Granted, he had reason to worry seeing as the only time he ever saw her she was practically yelling at Shane. The only worry he ever really had was if Shane found out about this lunch he was having with Mitchie. Shane was one for getting one he wanted, and when he didn't, he got pissed. But when someone else got what he specifically wanted, then words couldn't even describe how angry he got.

But Nate didn't want to think about that right now. He was happy just eating lunch and talking to Mitchie. It gave him an odd sense of comfort just being around her.

"So..." Mitchie started off, breaking Nate from his thoughts. "How exactly will Shane react if he were to find out about us hanging out together?"

She didn't really want to bring Shane up, at all, but she knew this certain subject couldn't really be avoided, especially since Nate _was_ his best friend.

Nate sighed and frowned in though briefly.

"Well, I know he won't be happy. At all. I really can't imagine how he'll react if he were to find out."

Mitchie frowned at his words. Even if Nate had confirmed that Shane didn't act out in violence very often, she still worried about if he would do it again. Especially since he could still be mad at Nate from whatever happened between them earlier.

"Nate, if he's gonna hurt you again, maybe we shouldn't be–"

"He's not gonna hurt me again." Nate interrupted, trying to assure her as best he could, even if he really didn't know what Shane would do.

"You don't know that, Nate. I mean, today was the first time he hit you, who knows if he'll snap again."

Nate sighed and shook his head. "Mitch, he can't stop me from hanging out with people I wanna hang out with. Besides..." He smirked. "A little bad karma will do him good."

Mitchie laughed quietly and shook her head with a grin.

"Alright, whatever you say. But if you come back to me with another black eye, I will not be held responsible for my actions." She warned playfully, smiling at Nate, who just laughed in response.

"Seriously though...how do you put up with him. I mean, you two are so different now, and he's such a...jerk."

Nate pursed his lips in thought for a moment before answering. "Because I know the real Shane's still there. I don't know where it is, but it has to be there. He's still my best friend, practically my brother."

Mitchie watched Nate with sympathetic eyes for a moment. She honestly just wanted to smack Shane for hurting all the people around him with his behavior and actions. All the people that were closest to him were hurting and just praying that the old Shane would come back and that the jerk with the big head would just disappear for good.

Mitchie dropped the subject when their waitress came back with their check. Nate, being the gentleman he was, generously paid for their meal, and before she knew it, he was escorting her back out into the street.

"So, now what? Do you have to get back to the bus?"

Nate reluctantly nodded his head, and Mitchie couldn't help the pang of disappointment she felt when he did so.

"Yeah, Nigel's probably done yelling at Shane now, the bus is still more than likely stuck, but he'll probably want to talk to us about the violence and arguing going on."

His voice was filled with disappointment as well.

"But, we can hang out later, I mean, if you want to."

Mitchie smiled and nodded her head, making Nate smile in return.

"Yeah, that would be great."

They talked a little aimlessly as they walked, and unfortunately for both of them, they were at the bus quicker than either of them would've liked. As they neared it, Mitchie couldn't help but feel slight worry overcome her when she realized that Shane was on the bus and nearly fifteen feet from her at this moment. It made her uncomfortable. Nate seemed to sense her uneasiness, and almost hesitantly reacher for her hand. Mitchie looked up at him with a small smile, only to find he was blushing slightly at his small show of affection.

They stopped walking once they were right next to the bus, Nate still lightly holding onto her hand.

"Uh, here..." Mitchie muttered quietly, taking Nate's phone, which was in his hand, and entered in her cell phone number.

"Call me later?" She asked hopefully. Nate smiled and nodded his head with no hesitation whatsoever.

"Of course." They smiled at each other for another moment before Mitchie spoke up once again.

"I guess you should go, and I should probably get home." Nate's smile faltered a bit, but he nodded once again, knowing she was right.

"Yeah, I'll call ya first chance I get." Mitchie nodded, and Nate, hesitantly once again, leaned in towards her and gave her a soft kiss on her cheek. He pulled back lightly and smiled at her a little, finally realizing she was blushing lightly.

Before any more words were exchanged, the sound of the tour bus door opening was heard, and instantly Nate and Mitchie jumped apart the second they realized it was Shane who had caught them.

And he didn't look happy. At all. Of course, when _did_ he look happy?

"What's going on?" He demanded sharply, glaring back and forth between the two. Mitchie merely scowled at Shane.

"What does it matter to you? It's absolutely none of your business what Nate or I do."

"Nate's my best friend, I have a right to know."

"No you don't, and besides, he's best friends with the guy you used to be."

Nate had to hold back his grin as he listened to Mitchie defend them. She was so good at standing her ground, and it was almost amusing to watch as Shane tried to come up with something better to say.

"Whatever. Why are you hanging out with him?"

"Well, after I gave him ice for the bruise he now has on his face thanks to you, we went out to lunch." Mitchie glared at Shane harder then ever as she thought about Shane hitting Nate. "I have to go, try not to break his jaw next time, huh Shane?"

She glared, before turning to Nate, letting her glare quickly fade as she said a quick goodbye and walked off.

Nate watched her as she walked off, before turning to face the beyond seething Shane. But Nate wasn't scared, watching Mitchie and her confidence gave Nate confidence of his own. He was gonna finally confront Shane. For real.

* * *

Okkk all you Smitchie fans and Nitchie haters, don't throw pointy objects at me just yet. Your Smitchie will be coming, I promise! Oh, and sorry it's kinda short.

Next chapter will be the exchange between Shane and Nate, and possible Shane and Mitchie? Who knows. I promise I will try to update a lot quicker this time! But your reviews really help get me motivated!


	6. Chapter 6

I was surprised how many of you liked the Nitchie. I thought it was pretty cute, but this will not be a Nitchie. Sorry. It will be a Smitchie and a Naitlyn. So I hope this quick update made up for the not so quick one previously. I loved every single one of your reviews, so I hope you all like this one. It's kind of...darker and pretty intense, so just a heads up about that, but it's an interesting start to the Smitchie relationship. Sort of.

* * *

Shane didn't know what to think as he watched Mitchie walk away from him and Nate. He couldn't believe Nate. He _knew_ that Shane liked Mitchie and that he had been vying to get her to even talk to him since the first time they even met. But here he was, standing there so nonchalant about having lunch with the girl that his best friend liked. He couldn't believe Nate would do that to him. He was supposed to be his best friend, his brother. Shane felt worse than betrayed at that moment. He felt hurt. Oddly enough, he didn't feel angry. Well, actually he kind of did, but not as bad as it usually was.

Shane looked over at Nate, who looked back almost surprised. Shane wasn't glaring or anything. Shane sighed and waited a moment before finally speaking.

"Why?" He whispered quietly. "Why would you do that to me? Why would you go out on a date with the girl that you_ knew_ I liked?"

Nate stuttered at first, prepared for Shane to be yelling and screaming and threatening to straighten his hair. He wasn't prepared for the hurt and disappointed Shane.

"It-It wasn't a date. I had walked into the place she worked at, and she saw my jaw and gave me some ice. So to thank her, I just took her to that Italian place."

Shane scoffed, more to himself than anything and sighed before placing his back against the slick tour bus and sliding down to the concrete.

"So it's my fault that you guys got together." He muttered quietly, but enough for Nate to understand, and as soon as he did he shook his head hastily.

"Shane, we're not together, we were just hanging out." He didn't know why he was defending himself. He was allowed to hang out with whoever he wanted to hang out with. But he felt bad, because Shane seemed genuinely hurt about this. And Nate just didn't understand why. But it made him feel guilty almost.

"I'll just never get a chance will with her, will I? I blew it the second we got famous. Did she say anything about me?" Shane looked up at Nate hopefully. Nate just sighed and shook his head, taking a seat next to his best friend.

"We actually really didn't talk about you all that much. She just asked me how I felt about it. I didn't think to ask her. But I think we all know how she feels about you now."

Shane sighed and ran a hand through his thick hair and looked up to the sky. It was just about dark now, no one was really out wandering around on the sidewalks, so Shane and Nate were safe for the time being.

"So what should I say to her, to get her to at least talk to me? I mean, you spent time with her when she's not mad at me, help me out here?" Shane was practically pleading. But Nate was still hesitant.

"Well, maybe if you weren't so cocky." Shane looked at him confused. "Come on, Shane, you know what I'm talking about. You think the entire world revolves around you. You get whatever you want and whoever you want, well most of the time, and you think that's all because you're Shane Gray, and you take advantage of that. She's not all for being the center of attention. Like, at all."

Shane considered his words for a moment before nodding his head. He had to admit, he did have a tendency of always trying to make everything about him, no matter where he was, all eyes had to be on him. But it was just something he had gotten used to, but obviously it was coming back to bite him in the butt.

"And you tend to smirk and awful lot. Try smiling more. She likes to smile a lot." Shane smiled lightly. That was something he could for sure do.

"Anything else?"

Nate thought for a moment. "She likes laughing. So I'm thinking if you can make her laugh, you're golden." Shane smiled even more. He was always the one that tended to make people laugh. Or he used to be.

"Got it. You think I can still catch up to her?"

"You can sure try, buddy."

Shane smiled appreciatively at Nate before standing up. Just as he was about to run off, he stopped and turned back to face Nate.

"And Nate? Uh, I'm sorry...for punching you earlier. And for everything else."

Nate didn't get a chance to respond for Shane was already running off in the direction that Mitchie had took.

"Dude!" Nate's head popped up when he heard Jason, who was sticking his head out the tour bus window. "Did _Shane _just_ apologize_." Looks like Nate wasn't the only one who was shocked.

"Yeah, I think he–"

"Dude, never mind that, you'll never guess this awesome TV show I found. I guess Nigel put like a TV in the bathroom or something, but when you watch it, it's like a staring contest with yourself!" Jason shouted excitedly, but Nate was completely lost. Bathroom. Staring at yourself...

"You mean the mirror?!"

* * *

Shane walked as fast as he could in the direction that Mitchie had taken while trying to think of what he'd say to her if and when he found her. He just prayed that she wouldn't get mad at him or annoyed with him. He really just hoped that she would give him one chance, to show him he can change. Or at least try to. He knew it wasn't going to be easy to change the person he had been for so long. But, he did miss his old self, where the people mattered most still liked him.

He sighed as he walked a little more, into rather unfamiliar territory. He had already passed Barney's, and was now in the middle of a place he hadn't been too before. It was getting even darker and the creepiness of the street wasn't helping any.

Just as he was about to turn around and go back, thinking he had gone too far, he heard a muffled scream. He paused and looked around, but didn't see anything. He shook his head, thinking his mind was playing tricks on him, until he heard it again, and this time he could make out the word 'stop.' He scrunched his eyebrows and scanned his gaze around, but came up with nothing. As he passed an alley, it grew clearer. Suddenly it stopped, and all he could hear was a girl crying. What was going on? But he nearly froze in horror when he heard that same girl scream his name.

"Shane!" The girl sobbed, and then Shane panicked, who could be calling his name, what was happening to her? Then he froze abruptly when he finally put a face to the voice and he felt sick and overwhelmed with fear.

"Mitchie?!" He cried out with horror, now frantically looking around, trying to spot her, and finally he did as he turned to face the alley. He lost all breath when he saw Mitchie trying to fight off someone. A guy. Shane would've gasped but all of his breath was caught in his throat. He didn't think. All he did was run as fast as he could toward the guy who was hurting Mitchie, and the first thing he did was tackle him to the ground as hard as he could.

Mitchie let out a cry of fear, and as much as Shane wanted to turn and comfort her, he was too busy punching the lights out of the guy who was hurting her. But eventually the guy managed to shove Shane off of him before running off. Shane was breathless as he watched the guy run off, but quickly didn't care as he heard Mitchie's sobs. He quickly whipped around and instantly pulled her against him, wrapping his arms carefully around her. She didn't pull away, she immediately buried her face into his chest and cried.

Shane let her. He felt like crying himself by just the thought of some creep hurting Mitchie. He let out a shaky breath and pulled her closer, trying to erase just the thought from his mind.

He let her cry a little longer before she finally slowed her sobs and tears into just small hiccups.

"Mitch...how bad did he hurt you?"

She didn't answer for a few moments, but he wasn't going to rush her.

"He just hurt my arms really bad. He-He grabbed and kept shoving me and pulling me...and.."

She stopped just as more tears were about to fall. So Shane stopped her, not wanting her to get to overwhelmed about so quickly after it happened.

"Mitch, I'm gonna try and find some help, ok?" He started to pull away, but Mitchie had a grip on his jacket and she pulled him back.

"No." She sobbed. "Don't leave me, please don't leave me." All thoughts of getting up were quickly erased after that. He just sat there holding her, trying to get her to calm down as best she could.

Finally there was complete silence. Shane was curious how she got so quiet so fast, but as he looked down, he saw she had fallen asleep. He sighed with relief, thankful that she was going to be able to get some rest at least. But he wasn't just going to let her sleep right here. She needed a bed. And seeing as he didn't know where she lived, there was only one logical place for her to stay.

Slowly and carefully, he adjusted his arms so one was carefully under her shoulders and the other was securely under her knees and he lifted her effortlessly into his arms as carefully as he could without waking her. He made his movements into a standing position slow, wanting her to get a good sleep before she woke up again.

He walked slowly down the sidewalk. It wasn't too far of a walk, but he wanted to get back to the bus as fast as he could. The sooner she was comfortable the better. He quickened his movements down the sidewalk, but kept glancing down at Mitchie every now and then, only to find that every time he did her face was still pressed into his chest and she was still sleeping.

It was nearly fifteen minutes later that he made it back to the bus, and thankfully Mitchie had barely stirred. Now he to face Jason and Nate. Nate no doubt would be worried.

He stepped onto the bus as quietly and as carefully as he could. As soon as he got on, he was greeted by the loud noises of a video game. He inwardly cursed Nate and Jason at that moment.

Though as soon as the two boys noticed him, the sounds stopped and Nate was in front of him in record time.

"Dude, what happened?!" He chooses _now_ to be loud? Shane inwardly cursed.

"Shhh." Shane glared at him briefly before jerking his head to the side, trying to get Nate to move out of the way. Nate caught on and quickly stepped aside.

Shane stepped over all of the junk that was spread all over the floor until he made it back to the bedroom at the back of the bus, wasting no time in placing Mitchie under the covers of it. He sighed and watched her for a few moments, a look of contentment on her features. He was sure that would be gone the second she woke up.

He sighed as he made his way back out to the front of the bus where a curious Jason and a panicked Nate were.

"What happened to her?!" He shouted, making Shane throw him another glare.

"Could you be any louder?!" Shane whispered harshly.

"Sorry." Nate whispered. "Now will you answer the question, please." He demanded.

"Some creep was attacking her in an alley somewhere." Nate's eyes widened. "It could've been worse, he just shoved her around a lot. At least that's what Mitchie told me." He whispered quietly.

"Is she gonna be ok?"

"I don't know, I didn't get to check to see how hurt she was, she was really freaked."

"Can't say I blame her." Jason commented.

"She was crying a lot, and then she fell asleep. I didn't know where her place was, so I just brought her here. I figured it would be better for her to wake up here." Nate nodded.

"So did you beat the crap out of the guy."

"Of course."

"Good." Nate smiled as much as one could during a situation like the one they were all unfortunately caught up in.

"So now we just have to wait for her to wake up and hope she's not pissed at me."

"She's not gonna be pissed at you, Shane. You probably just saved her life."

* * *

I hope I didn't make Shane seem too bipolar at the beginning, I tried to do the best I could to take his feelings and conveey them in his actions. So I hope that wasn't too bad, I've never really written a scene like that before. I hope you guys don't think it was too dark or something. But I would love to hear what you have to say in a review.


	7. Chapter 7

Here's chapter 7. Yaaay. I like this one, so I hope you like it too!

* * *

Mitchie had tossed and turned in the bed all night. But she didn't wake up until about 3 am. Although you couldn't really call it screaming, more like shrieking as she jolted up into a sitting position, gasping for air, reeling from the nightmare that had just invaded her mind. She whimpered as the events from last night came flooding back to her. She felt like crying now. In fact, she was too freaked, she didn't even try to hold back the tears, sobbing lightly as they flowed down her cheeks. Fear overwhelmed her as she realized she didn't know where she was. That is until she heard him.

"Mitchie? Mitch, are you all right?" His panicked voice made her cry a little harder as she finally recalled him saving her from being...she cried even harder as those thoughts crossed her mind.

When she didn't respond to him, Shane was up off the floor in a second. He had meant to sleep on the couch that night, seeing as he had given Mitchie his bed, but the entire time he was worried about her, and that made him unable to fall asleep. So he decided to sleep on the floor next to the bed, so he felt a little better being close to her if she were to wake up in the middle of the night, much like now.

He sat carefully next to her on the bed, his heart breaking with every tear that fell down her cheek. He slowly reached his arms out to her, wanting to at least try and comfort her, but the second his hand touched her arm, she flinched away from him. He tried to hide the hurt once she did that.

"Mitch, it's ok, it's just me." He whispered, but that only seemed to make her cry harder. He was confused now. He wondered why she wouldn't let him touch her, or why she wouldn't talk to him.

"Is Nate here?" She whispered weakly. Shane was glad it was dark, so she wouldn't see his face fall at her wanting Nate. He was hurt by that, that was for sure, but he wanted her to be ok, and if Nate did that for her, then whatever.

He sighed softly but nodded his head. "I'll go get him." He whispered back to her.

More fear took over Mitchie as she watched Shane leave. She didn't like being alone, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to be around Shane or not. She bit her lip and tried to block out all of the thoughts telling her that she shouldn't have sent Shane away. But she did want to see Nate.

"Mitchie?" Relief flowed through her when she heard Nate's tired whisper. She watched him carefully as he came and sat down next to her, in the spot that Shane was just occupying.

"Mitch, are you ok?" She cried a little more at the concern in his tired voice, and for a second she felt bad about waking him at such and early time. But she needed him. In response to his question, she shook her head no.

Nate watched her sadly, and wasted no time in wrapping his arms around her. But unlike for Shane, Mitchie didn't flinch away, instead she fell into his arms and sobbed into his chest. Nate just held her tighter, letting her get it all out.

As much as Mitchie loved the feel of Nate's arms around her, and him comforting her, she still couldn't get the feeling of Shane's arms around her when he saved her just hours ago. The way she felt so safe in Shane's arms made her want to stay there forever, and his firm grip that he had on her assured her that he wouldn't let anyone hurt her. And she trusted him. Not that she didn't trust Nate, but he just didn't give her that same feeling, though she knew that Nate wouldn't let anyone hurt her, she just felt better when she had been with Shane.

"Mitchie..." Nate finally spoke up when her sobs subsided. "Why didn't you want to talk to Shane?"

Mitchie closed her eyes, making more tears fall. She really didn't know. She wasn't ever supposed to trust him. She wasn't supposed to like, and she wasn't supposed to want him to hold her. She was supposed to hate him because he was a jerky pop star. But he had just showed her that he was capable of caring. But it wasn't supposed to happen. He wasn't supposed to changed. And she sure as hell wasn't supposed to be falling in love with him.

"Why did he save me?" She whispered brokenly. Nate gaped at her question. "Why didn't he let that guy just-just..." She started sobbing again. Nate abruptly pulled back, her questions shocking him to the core.

"What are talking about, Mitchie?" He demanded quietly. "You really think that Shane was just going to let that guy hurt you?"

Mitchie sobbed even more. "But he's not supposed to care!" She nearly shouted, catching Nate off guard. "I should hate him! I'm supposed to hate him!"

Nate didn't know what to say to her outburst. He was shocked and confused more than anything. He hadn't expected Mitchie to react like this. He figured she'd be happy that Shane saved her life. Never had he anticipated that she didn't _want_ him to care.

"Mitchie, he may come off as a jerk, but he _does_ have a heart. He wouldn't let anything happen to you. Especially something that might've happened if he _didn't_ show up."

Mitchie cried a little harder at that. Nate was right. Of course he was. Everyone has to have a heart. Of course for Shane, Mitchie always thought it was just really deep down. Apparently she was wrong.

"He cares about you, Mitch."

She scoffed quietly through her tears. "Yeah, right, if it weren't for what happened tonight, I'd think he hated me."

Nate narrowed his eyes slightly. "You think he _hates_ you?" Mitchie nodded after a moment. "Mitchie, you couldn't be farther from the truth. I think he's the one you need to be talking to."

Mitchie was quick to protest. "No!" She shouted quickly, stopping Nate from getting up from his seat on the bed. "Mitchie..."

"I just want to go home." She whispered quietly. But Nate hastily shook his head. By herself was the last place she needed to be. She was just being stubborn.

"It's three in the morning, Mitch, you're not going anywhere." Nate's voice was firm, making Mitchie groan quietly.

"Well then go away and let me go to sleep." She grumbled quietly. Nate nodded as he watched her fall back into the bed, burying her face in the pillow.

"Why does this pillow smell like Shane?" Nate chuckled quietly.

"Because it's his bed." He stated quietly before getting up and exiting the bedroom.

Guilt now took the place of her main emotion at the moment once she realized that Shane had given up his bed for her. She whimpered quietly to herself as she tried to process all the things that Nate had said to her. She didn't want Shane to care about her. She didn't want to care about Shane. It just wasn't supposed to freaking happen. She only knew Shane Gray the pop star. She didn't know just Shane Gray. She had given up on knowing the real him the second she actually met him. She believed the old him was still there, and apparently was slowly starting to come back if he had cared about her like Nate had said. If he was still the arrogant pop star she had come to known, he wouldn't have cared about anybody, let alone Mitchie.

A few more tears leaked from her eyes as she finally started to drift back into sleep. But this time she didn't have nightmares. This time she dreamed of Shane.

* * *

Shane sat anxiously on the couch out in the living quarters of the tour bus. He was far from being able to sleep at this point. He was hurt, confused, and most of all he was just worried about Mitchie. He was desperate to be next to her and to comfort her, but even she wanted Nate more than him, so be it. No matter how much it tore at his insides.

He nearly jumped out of his seat when Nate exited the bedroom. Shane looked at him curiously, desperate for information. Nate sighed and plopped next to him on the couch.

"She's confused." Nate whispered quietly. Shane scrunched his eyebrows together at his words.

"Confused about what?"

"You."

Shane sighed in annoyance. "Care to elaborate, Nate?"

"Well, what do you expect. Every time she's been around you, you were a jerk and arrogant, and then all of a sudden, you're saving her from some creep who would've raped her." They both winced at the word, but Nate continued. "She doesn't know what to think of you Shane. Before this whole thing, she thought you hated her. And now here you go, showing her that you seem to care about her."

"But I _do_ care about her." Shane insisted quickly.

"And that's what is confusing her. She doesn't know which one to believe."

Shane sat back in his seat and thought over Nate's words. Shane cared about her, more than he ever thought he would care about someone. But he had a crappy way of showing it before tonight. He didn't know what to do to make her believe him. He'd do anything, but would that still get her to trust him? Now he was even more confused than before.

"What's she doing now?"

"Sleeping, probably. She said she was going to."

Shane exhaled a deep breath before pushing himself off the couch and making his way back to the bedroom. As soon as he entered he saw her asleep. He bit the inside of his cheek nervously before making his way over to her and kneeling down so she was facing him.

"I'm sorry, Mitch. I never meant to act the way I did. I'm so screwed up and it took me forever to figure it out." He swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat the second he started speaking. Even though he knew she couldn't hear him, he had to say it, or else it would build up inside of him and he wouldn't be able to hold it anymore.

"You helped me figure it out, Mitch. And maybe that's why I was such a jerk to you. Because I knew you were right all along, and I didn't want you to be." He chuckled under his breath. "I always had a problem with being wrong. But tonight Mitch, when I saw that guy hurting you, I was so scared. You don't even know how scared I was. Just the thought of him hurting you made me sick. I care about you Mitchie. More than I thought possible. I've never felt like this for anyone but you, Mitch. I just wish you would know that." He scoffed to himself under his breath. "And you would know that if I got the courage to tell you this while you were actually awake."

He sighed quietly to himself as he watched her sleep for a few moments. He lifted his hand and carefully brushed a few of her bangs away from her eyes before he leaned down and placed a kiss on her forehead, knowing it'd probably be the only time he would ever be able to do that. Pulling back and watching her for a few brief seconds. He quietly trudged out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Of course, little did he know, Mitchie was awake, having had yet another dream that she wanted to escape from, she woke up. But the second she had heard someone entering the room, she closed her eyes pretending to be asleep. Then she heard Shane and his entire monologue. It had made her want to cry more tears then she knew she was capable of. She wanted to throw herself into his arms and for everything to be alright. For the past to just disappear. But she couldn't. No matter how bad she wanted to. She couldn't allow for herself to fall for him. Even if she already had. Much to her dismay and happiness, she was falling in love with Shane Gray.

* * *

Ok, there it is, sorry if some of it was a little cliché, but I actually thought this one was pretty good. But it matters more what _you _think. So pleaseee leave a review. I love them. -smile-


	8. Chapter 8

The morning came much to fast for Mitchie's liking. She fell asleep long after she had came to the stressful conclusion that she was in love with Shane. It had been on her mind almost the entire night, and she was thankful when she was finally able to fall asleep. But now having woken up, she knew she had to face Shane, which was going to be more awkward. Of course it would've been awkward whether she heard him or not. She didn't know how to act around him after he saved her. She owed him so much for that, and she was beyond the point of grateful. But it didn't mean she could forgive and forget everything that had happened before that.

She had tried so hard not to let his jerky pop star attitude get to her. It happened to a lot of people who got in the spotlight. But it did get to her, no matter how much she tried to hide it. He was a jerk to her and she would never be able to forgive him for that. But now her thoughts were all out of order because of what he had done for her. She didn't know what to think of him anymore, did he just have spur of the moment thing where he cared for one brief second about someone else, or was he really changing. She couldn't tell. But she didn't want to be heartbroken if he really wasn't going to change.

She groaned quietly to herself as she buried her face in the pillow, trying to block out the sunlight as much as she could. She just wanted to go back to sleep. Waking up meant that she had to go out there and deal with Shane and Nate. She knew they'd both probably be worried. Well, she knew Nate would, Shane she still wasn't so sure about. But she was pretty sure that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep again anytime soon, much to her disappointment.

She inhaled deeply and instantly regretted when the unforgettable smell of Shane took over her senses. She pushed herself away from the pillow as quick as possible and huffed to herself.

"Stupid pillow that smells like Shane." She muttered to herself before practically falling out of the bed and towards the door. She stood there for a moment, trying to prepare herself for what was more than likely about to come the second she walked out that door.

She couldn't avoid it forever, so with another deep breath, she pulled open the door and stepped out of the room. She bit her lip, expecting to instantly see Nate or Shane. But instead, all she saw was Jason sitting on the couch dancing awkwardly along to the music that was coming from his iPod. Mitchie couldn't help it, she giggled.

It was obviously loud enough to get Jason's attention, because the next thing she knew, Jason was pulling his earphones out of his ears and dropping his iPod on the couch before running over to Mitchie and pulled her into bear hug. Mitchie giggled again and awkwardly hugged him back.

He pulled back and she was instantly greeted by one of the most innocent and happy smiles she had ever seen on a twenty year old. It reminded her more of little kid.

"Hi! We haven't really met yet, I'm Jason!" He exclaimed excitedly. "And you're Mitchie. Shane and Nate talk about you all the time. You want some breakfast?"

Mitchie laughed as Jason quickly switched subject before she could barely comprehend what he was saying. At his question she shook her head.

"No thanks, I'm not that hungry."

Jason breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, good, I'm not allowed to use the kitchen anymore after I tried to cook Shane's phone in the microwave. Come sit down!"

Mitchie laughed at the innocence that just seemed to radiate off of Jason. It comforted her immensely to just be around him, putting her at ease for the time being, or at least until Shane or Nate show up.

Jason eagerly pulled her to the couch before sitting them both down on the couch.

"So...where are Nate and Shane?" She asked, almost uneasily.

"Oh, they had to go to some meeting about..." He paused and scrunched his eyebrows together. "Something..." He finished unsurely.

Mitchie had to hold back her sigh of relief. "So when will they be back?" At least she might have some time to prepare what she was going to say to them.

"About half an hour or so." She nodded and bit her lip as she sat on the couch next to Jason, who had pulled out his guitar and placed it on his lap. She tried to concentrate as much as possible on what she was going to say to Shane. She kept coming up blank. She's never really had one decent conversation with the guy, at least she didn't have one that hadn't led up to an argument. So she had absolutely no idea how she was going to start this one off.

"He was worried about you, ya know." Jason stated randomly, breaking Mitchie off from her thoughts. She looked at him curiously.

"Who?"

"Shane." He stated simply, catching Mitchie off guard slightly. "I know every time he's been around you, he's been a jerk. But he really does care about you. I can tell. I was always pretty good at that."

Mitchie was speechless for a few moments. She had a million and one questions going through her head at this moment. Maybe Jason was the one she could go to for advice. She was so comfortable with him that it made her just want to spill his guts to him.

"If you tell me something, you should it'll stay just between us." He told her softly, almost as if he had read her mind.

Mitchie nodded her head, and with a deep breath turned to face him better.

"I don't know what to do." She started off quietly, and hesitantly. But she looked at Jason and saw that she had his full attention, and it looked like he really did care, so that made it so much easier.

"I mean, first off, he's a jerk to me before he even knew my name. And then every other time that I talked to him we ended up arguing and yelling at each other, and it just put under this terrible impression that he just hated me. Like, genuinely hated me, and it hurt. And it shouldn't have. But then last night happened, and you and Nate are saying that he cares about me, and it just seems so unrealistic." She was on the verge of tears now, having admitted everything she was feeling, but it felt good to get it off her chest.

Jason put a comforting hand on her knee, trying his best to calm her down while he tried to think of something to say to her that could make her feel any better than now. He knew it had to have been confusing. Jason didn't get much, but he got that. When it came to his friends, he didn't mess around. Mitchie was his friend, and so was Shane.

"You know, when we were kids, me, Shane, and Nate would always talk about how we would find that perfect girl that would change our entire life."

Mitchie looked up at Jason, curious as to where he was going with that.

"Shane never really knew what his perfect girl would be like. He couldn't even begin to imagine what she'd be like, but he told us that when he found her, he would just know. Mitchie, Shane's not a jerk. He's just lost his head for a little bit. But I think you're bringing it back to him. And it's not easy to do that, he's got a pretty hard head, trust me." Jason grinned, making Mitchie smile back at him.

"But he's trying. And he didn't start trying until he met you. You pushed him back into reality and told him that he wasn't perfect. And that the world didn't revolve around him. He's changing because he knows it hurts you to see him like that."

Mitchie didn't know what to say to that. So he really was changing? For her? God, that couldn't be possible. She didn't do anything but yell at him and get angry with him. Maybe she was still dreaming. She wanted to get to know the real Shane Gray. She had always wanted to, even before she first met him. When she was just another fan, she wanted to know him, the real him. But she just wondered if she would be able to forget what had happened between them. It hurt more than she could even put into words, and she just didn't know why.

"So what does all that have to do with your little story about what he thought of the perfect girl?" She asked curiously.

Jason responded with a sly grin and innocent shrug, making Mitchie raise her eyebrows suspiciously.

"I'll tell you a little later. You should probably talk to Shane first." He suggested.

Mitchie frowned. "I don't even know what to say to him." She confided softly.

"I want to believe that he's changing and that he won't be the jerky pop star anymore, but I'm that after he changes that he'll turn back into that, and it'll break my heart."

She didn't why she was confiding in Jason with _this_. She never expected to go that deep into her feelings, but she couldn't help it. She knew she wouldn't regret it later, but she was still nervous about it. Because she wasn't sure if she was feeling completely ridiculous or not.

"Jason, if I tell you something really important, you have to swear not to tell anybody until I can completely figure it out for myself."

"Of course, I swear."

Mitchie nodded, and took a deep breath, not noticing when Jason's eyes darted to look behind her, and he tried to get her to stop talking.

"I think I'm in love with Shane."

Mitchie bit her lip after he confession, but was confused to see Jason's eyes wide and his finger pointing behind her. She officially couldn't breathe. Someone was behind her and had just heard her confession.

"You're in love with Shane!?" She nearly died of relief when she heard Nate's shocked voice.

"Jesus, Nate, could you scare the crap out of me anymore? I thought you were Shane!"

She turned around and glared at the grinning Nate, who just shrugged innocently before sauntering over to them and collapsing on the couch next to Mitchie.

"I knew it, I freaking knew it!" Nate exclaimed with a laugh. Mitchie rolled her eyes and eagerly shoved her elbow into Nate's ribs.

"Shut up. Where is Shane, anyway?"

"Why? You gonna tell him that you love him?"

"Nate, why don't you go take that guitar of yours and shove it up your butt." She was mildly serious, but it just made Nate and Jason laugh, which in turn made her laugh.

"You're so immature, Mitchie." Nate stated with a grin.

"Where _is_ Shane?" It was Jason that asked this time. Nate's grin fell at the question this time, when it finally hit him what Shane was doing. After walking in on Mitchie's confession, he knew this was bad.

"Um..." He started off uneasily.

Mitchie looked at him confused, her and Jason's smiles disappearing now as well. "Nate...?"

"He's...uh, with a girl."

Mitchie frowned. "As in...on a date?"

Nate nodded, wishing more than anything that Shane hadn't have been so stupid. Especially after Shane had spent the whole night worrying about Mitchie, and now he was out with some other girl, it made Nate sick to know that Shane would do that.

"Oh." She whispered quietly. She knew she'd get hurt. She just didn't expect it to happen so quickly.

"Mitchie...I'm sorry, I tried to stop him, I swear."

Mitchie just shook her head and stood up. "It's ok, I should be leaving anyways, thanks for letting me stay here."

She was quick to get off the bus, trying not to let the two decent members of Connect Three see her tears.

But Nate knew something had to be done.

* * *

Ok, so I know I'm making Shane seem like the biggest jerk ever, but I promise, it's not that bad.

I'll update as soon as possible.


	9. Chapter 9

Haha don't get used to the two updates in one day, there was no school today. Normally I would've waited, but since I don't want you all to completely hate Shane, I wanted to post this asap. Hope you like it, and don't forget to review, they're what keep me going. -smiles brightly-

* * *

Nate couldn't let her run off like that. He couldn't. Because if he did, they might not ever see her again. He didn't want her to run off and then just avoid them, because he knew that's what she would do. That's what anyone would do in her situation. So thinking on his feet, he ran and was barely able to reach her after she made it a few feet off of the bus.

"Mitchie, hold up." She didn't listen to him, so he followed her and grabbed her arm, whirling her around so she was facing him. His heart dropped when he saw the tears falling down her cheeks.

"What?" She asked quietly, and it made Nate's heart wrench to see her so upset. Over Shane's stupid mistake.

"Mitchie, don't run off, just come back on the bus, please." He pleaded quietly.

"Why should I? I don't wanna have to face Shane." She admitted.

"Maybe you should just give him a chance to explain. Please, Mitchie, don't give up on him. Give him time."

"I've given him plenty of time, Nate. In fact I've given him too much of my time."

"I know you have, and he didn't deserve a second of it." Mitchie looked at him confused. "But Mitch, he needs your help. He needs you. Mitchie, you may not believe me when I tell you this, but he loves you. He always has. He just didn't know it. He just doesn't know what to do with it now that he does know it. He's never been in love before."

"He doesn't love me. He can't."

"He can, and he does." Nate shot at her. He knew his best friend. And he knew his best friend was in love with Mitchie.

"So why the hell is he on a date?!"

"I don't know, but maybe you should just give him a chance to explain instead of just running away. If you really love him, Mitchie, which I know you do, you just admitted it, then you would give him a chance to explain himself. He doesn't deserve it, I know that. But you do kind of owe him, Mitchie. He did save your life."

Mitchie scoffed. "Oh, so I should just forget everything he did just because he saved my life?"

"No, but you owe him at least a little bit. Please, just talk to him."

"Fine." Mitchie gave in, but she wasn't the least bit happy about it. She trudged slowly behind Nate as she reentered the bus and plopped down on the couch with a pout as she crossed her arms across her stomach.

"Mitchie, you look like a little kid who's being forced to take a bath. And trust me, I should know, I live with one."

Nate grinned, pointing in the direction of a Jason, who had two Twizzlers hanging out of his mouth like teeth.

"Look...I'm a walrus." He laughed while Nate and Mitchie just snickered. Leave it to Jason to break the tension in any room. Mitchie rolled her eyes and leaned back against the couch. More nervous than ever about seeing Shane. After his confession the previous night, she'd think that Shane would wait for her at least. If he cared so much about her he wouldn't have been on a date right now. She cared about him though. More than she ever intended to. She was willing to give him one more chance. But he better have had a damn good reason as to why he was on a date.

The time dragged on as the three waited for Shane to come back. It was driving Mitchie up the wall waiting for him, and the longer she waited, the more anxious she got. She just wanted him to come back and for it to be over with.

Finally, after what seemed like forever of worrying, they heard the door creak open, and Shane's voice floated through.

"Thanks, Rach, I owe you one. I'll call you later and tell you how it goes." Mitchie looked over at Nate confused as to why Shane was thanking this girl, and Nate seemed just as confused.

"Hey guys I'm bac–" Shane cut off quickly when he saw Mitchie sitting on the couch looking up at him.

Mitchie's breath caught in her throat as she looked at him. She knew it'd be hard to face him, but she didn't know she'd get so emotional by just looking at him. The thought of what he just came back from was like a million knives stabbing into her heart, it was just worse now that she was looking up at the man that she knew she was in love with.

"Mitchie...you're still here." He whispered, but Mitchie took his words the wrong way, thinking that it meant that he didn't want her here, it brought tears to her eyes, but she risked the headache and tried to hold them back.

"Yeah." She croaked, as the tears built up in her throat. "How was your date?"

Shane looked at her like she was crazy. What date?

"Date?" He asked, glancing over at Nate.

"Did you tell her I was on a date."

"Well, you were...weren't you?" Nate asked him unsurely. Shane's eyes widened and he quickly glanced back and forth between Mitchie and Nate.

"No! Dude, I told you I was having lunch with Rachel!"

Nate's eyes widened and a sheepish blush appeared on his cheeks. He chuckled nervously.

"Ohh _Rachel_. I thought you said someone else." He mumbled, embarrassed that he was the one that caused so much trouble.

"Dude!" Shane exclaimed, picking up the nearest object and throwing it at Nate who thankfully blocked it.

"Mitchie, it wasn't a date! Rachel's a friend of ours that we've had forever. Nate obviously misunderstood me." He glared at Nate, who was doing anything to avoid Shane's gaze. Jason was apparently amused by the whole situation, laughing as he watched the exchange.

Mitchie was quiet, she didn't respond to Shane, she couldn't even look him in the eyes. She didn't know what to say to him. She was scared, and nervous, and completely and stupidly in love with him.

"Mitchie, you believe me...right?" Now Shane was scared. Scared that she was totally pissed at him for having lunch with Rachel. But he needed advice from a girl, and Rachel was the only girl that he could confide in.

"Shane...can I talk to you in the bedroom...alone?" Mitchie asked nervously.

"Um...sure."

She stood up and rushed back to the bedroom, carefully trying to formulate her words in her head before she spoke them to Shane out loud.

Shane was quick to follow behind her. As soon as they were in the bedroom, he shut the door with a click, assuring them the privacy that they needed. Shane watched her anxiously as she tried to get her thoughts in order. Shane wasn't going to rush her. He was just glad she was going to talk to him.

"Shane..." She began, nervously fiddling with her fingers as she stood in front of him. "I don't really know where to start...I'm so confused." She whispered quietly.

"Why don't you start with telling me why you're confused." He suggested. Mitchie nodded her head and took a deep breath.

"I'm confused because I don't know what to think of you at this point. First off, you're a complete jerk to me and the times after that, and I made sure that I wouldn't let it hurt me, I wouldn't let your attitude hurt me. But it did, it hurt so bad, Shane. So after that, I promised myself that I would have nothing to do with you anymore. And then last night happened and you saved me, and then I heard you last night when you thought I was asleep–"

Shane gulped. "You heard that?"

"Yeah, and Shane it was the sweetest thing I had ever heard in my entire life, and that just made me even more confused, because you went from being a jerk to being completely sweet and I didn't know which one to believe. I know which one I _wanted_ to believe, but I didn't want to get my hopes up and then get my heart broken, because Shane to be completely and totally honest with you, I am in love with you. I am so in love with you, and I shouldn't be, because you were just a jerk, and it hurt me, and when Nate said you went on a date, you broke my heart without even knowing that you had it." She whimpered and now had tears falling down her cheeks, avoiding his gaze at all costs.

Shane was nearly gaping. She had just admitted that she loved him. He never thought those words would come from her mouth. No matter how desperately he always wanted to hear her say them, he always thought it would be impossible for her to say those words to him. He thought he had ruined any chance he had with her. But here she was, spilling her heart to him, and he felt like an idiot standing there with his jaw to the floor.

"Look," She began after a few moments of silence from him. "I understand if you think I'm crazy for all of that, and I'll leave if you want me too, but I just thought you should–"

She was abruptly cut off when she felt Shane's warm hands on her cheeks and then his lips pressed firmly on hers. She froze instantly at the wonderful feeling of his lips. She didn't expect that. Him kissing her had never crossed her mind. He shouldn't have been kissing her, she shouldn't have been letting him kiss her. But to her own surprise, she was kissing him back just as eagerly.

It was wrong for her to do so, even if felt so perfect and amazing. She'd probably never get a chance to feel this again, so even though she should have been pulling away, she grabbed his shoulders and pulled herself as close to him as possible.

Shane was shocked for about a brief second before he let one of his hands slide away from her cheek and into her long, soft hair, pulling her head closer to his, and his lips more firmly against his. He needed this. He needed her. He needed to prove that he did love her even if he hadn't said it, he had to put as much passion and love into this kiss to try and even skim the surface of how he felt about Mitchie.

The kiss gradually deepened, both Mitchie and Shane utterly shocked at how much love was put into the kiss by both of them. Shane took a big step and let his tongue trace Mitchie's bottom lip, almost hesitantly.

But that's when Mitchie was thrown back into reality. She quickly pulled away from Shane, though she didn't get very far due to his grip on her cheek and the back of her head, but she wasn't helping much by continuing to grip tightly onto his shoulders.

Shane eventually was the first one to speak up. "I love you, Mitchie." He whispered quietly. Mitchie had to hold back her gasp at his completely sincere and genuine words. It made her want to cry again. She bit her lip, and pulled back all the way, letting Shane's hands fall away from her face and back by his sides. Her hands slowly slid off his shoulders.

"Shane...I love you, too. But...I think maybe we should take this slow." She paused. "Really slow. I want to believe that you're changing, Shane. I really do. But I think we should just start off as friends before we do anything else. Because I don't wanna risk you breaking my heart. I don't think I can survive that." She whispered to him quietly. To her surprise, he nodded his head.

"Ok, I think I can do that. Friends." He reached his hand out for her to shake in a deal, and when she did, he pulled her closer to him once again and crashed his lips against hers one more time.

"Shane..." She warned, her mouth still lightly against his. He pulled back and grinned innocently with a shrug to match.

"Sorry, wanted to get it out of my system. Friends. I promise." He smiled, and Mitchie laughed softly before leaning in and wrapping her arms around Shane in a hug, which he eagerly returned, holding her tightly against him. She rested her head against his shoulder, inwardly praying that his new and improved attitude would stick. If it didn't, she didn't if she'd be able to survive it.

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hahahaha. Everything can't be perfect just because they kiss, right? Haha. This is probably my favorite chapter so far, I would love to hear what you think of it.


	10. Chapter 10

**So I figure I owe about a million apologies for taking so long to update, but I've had some serious writers block, so I apologize if this chap doesn't turn out great, and then we got a new computer, which didn't work when we hooked it up, and that was a long and irritating process. But I'm back! And I hope you like this chapter, even though it's not one of my best.

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Being just friends with Mitchie was a lot harder then Shane had anticipated. He did his hardest to keep any thoughts that didn't belong during a friend relationship out of his head, but most of the time, he could just couldn't help himself. But he didn't want anything to be wrong with their relationship, if they ever got to one, so he went along with it, no matter how difficult it was becoming. Every second he was with her it seemed to just get a lot harder, granted it hadn't even been a day, but still, it was hard to control himself most of the time.

She hadn't even left their tour bus after the incident a couple days ago, and most of the time since was Shane flirting with Mitchie, given he was the one doing most of the flirting, but she never actually told him to stop, or complained about it, so he steadily tried getting bolder, whether it be wrapping his arm around her shoulders, or giving her rather suggestive comments, but even then she would just glare playfully at him and not actually respond, he figured it was better than her actually getting mad at him for it. All of that was as far as he could go, though. Any farther and he might cross some boundary line that would lead her to say that she wasn't ready for a romantic relationship with him.

What irritated him more was that she didn't spend all of her time with him. He knew it was a selfish thought, but he wanted to get her to know him enough so she would be ready _sooner_. But much to his dismay, she spent as much time with Nate and Jason as she did him. Most of the time all four of them were together, which wasn't so bad, but he couldn't get as much flirting in as he would if it was just the two of them. It always got worse when she just sat and talked to Nate _alone._

He was so caught up in his thoughts he barely registered when Mitchie said that she had to get back to her apartment. He hadn't realized he had been practically sulking. He jumped up onto his feet, out of the chair he was currently in and widened his eyes.

"What? No! You can't leave." He cried, and Mitchie stopped almost out the door, and looked at Shane curiously.

"Why not? I have to get back to my apartment and tell my roommate why I've been gone for three days." She laughed softly.

"Can't you just call her or something?" Shane demanded pleadingly, ignoring Nate when he rolled his eyes at Shane.

"I'll be back later." She shook her head, and was once again about to walk off the bus, but stopped quickly, giving Shane a bit of hope.

"Actually, how about we all go out for lunch, and then you guys can meet my roommate?" She suggested.

"Sure." Nate and Jason were quick to agree, once again to Shane's dismay. Just another person that would take Mitchie's attention off of him. But he was outvoted.

Slumping his shoulders, he responded begrudgingly. "Fine."

He muttered, plopping deeply back into his chair as Mitchie beamed and skipped off the bus.

Nate couldn't help himself. "Dude, what's your problem? It's like you want Mitchie all to yourself."

"I _do_ want her to myself. The less time she spends alone with me the longer it takes for her to decide that she wants to be more than friends with me." He emphasized as much as he could.

Nate just sat there shaking his head a little bit.

"Dude...don't you at least want to get to know her a little more before you actually start dating her. Or do you just want what you had with all your other girlfriends?"

Shane glared hard at him.

"Of course I want to get to know her, and of course I don't want a repeat of my last, _irrelevant_, relationships. Mitchie's different than all those other girls."

"Then treat her like she is. If you want your relationship with her to work, you can't just jump into it. A good relationship takes time." Nate scoffed in disbelief. "I can't believe how dense you are about this."

Nate shook his head, while Shane decided to just stay silent. All of his previous relationships were basically meaningless flings. He was never really into any of those other girls. They were the ones that were crawling all over him, and usually they were more fake than anything. Mitchie definitely wasn't, and she sure as hell didn't crawl all over him. He needed to stop figuring that everyone just wants to be with him because of how famous he is. Because that's not what Mitchie was looking for. He needed to give her what she was looking for.

It didn't take Mitchie too long to get back to her apartment, and when she did she was instantly attacked by a freaking out Caitlyn.

"Where the hell have you been?!" She screeched, making Mitchie winced, but her smile still didn't leave her face.

"It's been three days, you could have at least told me you were going to disappear!"

Mitchie rolled her eyes, but continued to beam as she walked farther into their apartment.

"Geez, sorry mom." She remarked with a laugh, but Caitlyn continued to rant, knowing what would shut her up, Mitchie added, "Oh and by the way we're gonna have lunch with Connect 3."

"Ohhh, so that's your excuse–Wait what?" She did shut up, and her angry expression was replaced by a perplexed one.

"Mhmm. I spent three days in Connect 3's tour bus, kissed Shane Gray, and they agreed to have lunch with us today." She stated nonchalantly, or at least she was trying to. Inside she was trying her hardest not to jump up and down with joy and happiness.

By now Caitlyn's jaw had dropped as far as it could go, and she was standing completely frozen.

"Caitlyn...breathe." Mitchie grinned when Caitlyn gasped and her eyes widened considerably.

"We're having lunch with _Connect 3?_" She screeched. Mitchie laughed and nodded her head enthusiastically.

"Oh my God." Caitlyn muttered. "I'm gonna have lunch with..._Nate_...of_ Connect 3?_" She gasped. Mitchie once again laughed and nodded her head.

"Wait, did you say you kissed Shane Gray?!" She demanded.

Mitchie blushed slightly, and this time gave a meek nod of her head.

"I thought you hated him." Now she was more confused than ever. Mitchie sighed heavily, decided it was probably the perfect time to fill Caitlyn in on everything before one of the boys spilled something that Mitchie hadn't mentioned.

Caitlyn was shocked to say the least about everything, but she took it better than Mitchie thought she would. Of course Mitchie knew it was just because she'd be able to hang out with Nate. Mitchie rolled her eyes and grinned.

"So you'll come to lunch with us, right?"

"Duh! I can't wait see this new and improved Shane Gray." _And Nate, _Mitchie mused.

"Good, I'll just text Shane and tell them where to meet us." She grinned and pulled her phone out of her pocket.

They decided on meeting at a restaurant that was located in more of a secluded location, that way they wouldn't get interrupted by fans or anything. The girls met up with the three boys just outside the small café. Mitchie introduced Caitlyn to an overly hyper Jason, a slightly reluctant Shane, and a seemingly dreamy looking Nate. Mitchie rolled her eyes when she realized Caitlyn had on the same expression as she looked at Nate.

They all started to walk into the building, but Shane held Mitchie back. Looking at him curiously, he seemed kind of nervous. That was a new one.

"Since when does Shane Gray get nervous?" She teased, making Shane blush just a tiny shade of pink, amusing Mitchie to no end.

But her amused expression was turned to one of slight shock when Shane pulled out a single rose from behind his back, a sheepish, but genuine expression on his face.

"I know it's not much, but I didn't think you'd like it if I went too over the top." He was mumbling, slightly embarrassed, or worried that she would think he went too far.

Mitchie happily accepted the rose with a bright smile.

"This is really sweet, Shane." She gushed, but he just seemed to blush more, now obviously trying to avoid eye contact, and she could tell he was genuinely nervous.

To ease his nerves, she put gently grabbed his chin and made sure his gaze was on hers. Once it was she smiled at him and leaned in to give him a small, but rather lingering kiss on his cheek, and instantly he seemed to ease a little.

He didn't say anything, still too embarrassed.

Mitchie rolled her eyes, but smiled and grabbed his hand and pulled him inside the building so they could join their friends.

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**Ehh this one wasn't so great, more of a filler chapter. Definitely not my best, but I would still appreciate it if you reviewed anyways. Once again, I'm sorry for my lack of updates, I'll try really hard to be better.**


	11. Chapter 11

**So I don't have much of an excuse as to why it took me so long to update again, but I do apologize, and I hope you enjoy the chapter, I enjoyed writing it, though it's basically another filler.**

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"So, how long are you guys stuck here?" It was Caitlyn that spoke up, but everyone could tell that her question was being directed at Nate, who sitting directly across from her in the booth that the five of them had occupied. With Nate and Jason on one side, and Shane, Mitchie and Caitlyn squeezed in on the other, thanks to Shane who had opted to sit next to Mitchie. Though he ended up getting squished in between both girls.

"Well, the part that we need could only be found in another state, so he we have to wait for that, and then the labor could take a few days at the most." It was Nate who replied, still staring at Caitlyn, as If they were having their own conversation.

Given, Mitchie was probably the only one that was paying attention to the conversation. Jason was in his own little world, seeming to build something out of his french fries and burger, which he hadn't even taken a bite out of yet. And Shane, well Shane was pretty much just staring at her, not that she really minded much, but he could at least try and be subtle about it. He didn't seem to want to be around other people.

Just then, the waitress came up to the group, seeing as they were the only people in the restaurant. They chose their place well; interruptions weren't going to be happening anytime soon.

"So, how is everything?" Everyone mumbled appreciatively in response, but Mitchie could see the waitresses gaze was on Shane, who was the only one that didn't respond.

"How about you, Mr. Gray?" Mitchie didn't like the way she sounded a little flirtacious.

"The food's fine." Shane mumbled, not taking his gaze away from Mitchie. The waitress seemed irritated with his lack of looking up at her.

"Can I get you another drink?"

"Sure, whatever." _Anything to make her leave._ Shane thought bitterly to himself as he still continued to just watch Mitchie, amused with the fact that she seemed just as annoyed with waitress as everyone else was.

The waitress leaned over to grab Shane's half empty glass, but not so subtly landed her hand on his.

"Oops, my fault."

Shane finally looked away from Mitchie to glance at the very irritating waitress, who was smirking flirtatiously at him. He was quick to pull his hand away and place it under the table. But the waitress didn't seem to notice; instead she bluntly placed her hand on Shane's shoulder, who didn't even bother hiding his cringe. He felt Mitchie tense up next to him.

"Anything else I can get you, Shane?" Shane glared, and just because it would make them all feel better, he lifted his arm and placed it around Mitchie's shoulders.

"No." He didn't even bother with the 'thanks'.

The waitress walked away, very irritated and annoyed after Shane placed his arm around Mitchie.

Shane merely smirked and shook his head, not moving his arm off of Mitchie's shoulders, but she didn't seem to be complaining too much.

"Well….that was interesting." Nate commented slowly, taking a bite out of his burger.

"What was interesting?" Jason, who was genuinely confused, go figure. Nate just shook his head, before he looked at Jason's plate.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Bad idea. A bright smile lit Jason's features at his explanation that was to come.

"I'm building a birdhouse! Out of french fries and ketchup!"

Everyone just snickered and shook their heads. Except Nate, who just shook his head and went back to his food.

"So, what are you guys going to do while you're stuck here?"

Nate shrugged. "I'm sure Nigel will find something for us to do, interviews, CD signings, meet and greets, anything to keep us busy until we're on the road again."

"Why can't we just get a break from all the promotional crap?" Shane complained. "I don't wanna work." He just wanted to spend time with Mitchie before they had to leave. He didn't know what he was going to do when he was on the road again and had to spend a hell of a lot of time away from her. Man, he wasn't looking forward to that. He didn't how much he could take of being away from her. He went into frenzy just when she had to go back to her apartment.

So deep in thought, he didn't realize his expression had changed dramatically. Mitchie was the first one to pick up on it.

"Shane, are you ok?" His head shot up to meet her gaze, and he nodded solemnly. Of course, she didn't believe him, and of course she wasn't going to give up on it.

"Hey, Caitlyn, can you let us out?" Caitlyn nodded immediately, and as soon as she was out of the booth, Mitchie practically shoved Shane out and dragged him to a secluded part of the building. He didn't bother fighting, at least he'd get some alone time with her. But he wasn't sure if he wanted to admit what was bothering him or not. She said it herself she wanted things between them to go really slow, and so far it's been nothing but fast for them, so he wasn't positive if he'd be freaking her out or not.

"What's bothering you, Shane?"

He sighed, raking a hand through his hair, trying to find a proper way to respond to her. She seemed to be waiting patiently, but he could tell she was really curious, and seemingly concerned.

"Just…have a lot on my mind." He offered lamely. She rolled her eyes at him. She wasn't having any of that.

"Obviously. Come on, Shane. Just tell me." He couldn't deny her, especially when she looked at him like she was. Like she was concerned. Not too many were concerned about him as of lately. He didn't them, but the way Mitchie was looking at him, he couldn't lie.

"I'm just worried about what's going to happen when we get back on the road again." He avoided eye contact with her, sticking his fingers into his pockets, anything to keep him distracted.

"You'll go back on tour and do what you normally do?" It was more of a confused question. She didn't fully understand what he meant.

"No—I mean, I'm worried about what's going to happen between us." He said in defeat, still not looking at her.

Mitchie bit her lip. He seemed genuinely worried, and that saddened her. Because, honestly, she was worried too. She didn't want him to leave and then go back to his signature jerky ways. That wouldn't do anyone any good, and she was worried that if that were to happen, they would lose everything that was between them. Deep down, she knew that wouldn't happen, what they had was too strong, at least it seemed like it was. But, no one ever knew with someone as famous as Shane was.

Sighing, trying to ease her mind and his, she stepped closer to him, surprising him by wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her had against his chest. He was shocked, but recovered quickly as he wrapped his arms around her in return.

"You're going to call me every day, and we'll talk for hours until you pass out from sleep deprivation, and I'll go to as many concerts and meet and greets as I can as long as they're in the same state, and it'll feel like normal." She chuckled dryly. "We better get used to it anyways, huh?"

His eyes widened considerably, but he didn't reply to that, not daring to argue with something like that, because he wanted all of that just as much as she seemed to. Sighing deeply, he continued to keep his hold on her, not ever wanting to let her go.

But all too quickly, she pulled away from him and he felt like he was going to freeze, and he was almost tempted to pull her back to him, but her smile stopped him, and before he knew it he felt her lips on his cheek.

"Come on, pop star." She stated with a smile, grabbing his hand and pulling him back over to their friends, who were all getting out of the booth.

"Hey, you guys ready to go?" Nate asked reluctantly, he obviously didn't want to leave.

"Why do we have to go?" Shane complained, tightening his grip on Mitchie's hand.

Nate sighed. "Because Nigel just called me, and, as predicted, he set up a CD signing." It was easy to hear that he was disappointed. In fact, disappointment was radiating off the entire group.

"We have to get back to our apartment anyways, Mitch. My mom was supposed to call to set up that dinner for next week."

"Dinner?" Nate asked curiously.

"Sorry, dude, you're not invited." Mitchie smirked towards Nate, who childishly stuck his tongue out at her, making Mitchie laugh, and instantly the tension that had built amongst the group was gone in a flash.

"My parents, and Mitchie's all like to get our entire families together every once in awhile, ya know, so we don't lose touch or whatever. Our grandparents and cousins come down an all that, too." Caitlyn explained while rolling her eyes. "And it's my mom's turn to deciding where we're going. And since she doesn't have my cell phone number, Mitch and I have to get home."

"Yeah, we probably should, we seem to be distracting you boys, and you need to focus on business sometimes." Mitchie teased all three of the boys, who merely grinned in response.

"So I guess we'll see you guys later?" Caitlyn asked nervously.

"Of course!" Nate piped in, a little too enthusiastically, but he didn't seem to notice. "Here, I'll give you my cell number." But before he could, his phone jingled its tune, and his shoulders slumped as he looked at the screen.

"It's Nigel." He pouted.

"Don't worry, Nate, I'll give her your number, you guys go before you get in trouble. And you…" Mitchie stated, turning to face Shane. "Play nice, 'kay." She teased as she leaned up and placed a kiss on his cheek and smiling at him one more time before grabbing Caitlyn's arm and pulling her outside onto the sidewalk.

Shane just stood smiling to himself as he watched the two girls walk away from them. He chuckled softly to himself before going up to Nate, who was on the phone with an irritated Nigel, and patted his best friend on the shoulder before signaling outside.

"The fans await, boys." He grinned, walking out of the restaurant, followed by his two very amused best friends.

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**All right, there ya go. I already have the next few chapters written, so the more reviews I get, the faster the new chaps come. -smiles.- **


	12. Chapter 12

**So, hope you enjoy this one, too. Loved your reviews, I really really did.

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"So…" Mitchie started with a mischievous grin on her lips as she and Caitlyn walked down the path that led to their apartment.

"So…what?" Caitlyn asked, confused by Mitchie's facial expression.

"_So_…you and Nate seemed to click pretty well." Caitlyn instantly blushed a deep shade of red. She tried to fight it off by scoffing and shaking her head. But Mitchie was her best friend, and could see straight through her act.

"Oh, come on, Cait, you so like him." Mitchie smirked when Caitlyn's head shot up to glare at her best friend.

"Oh, kind of how you like _Shane_?" She shot back, and soon the friends were caught up in a glaring contest. But after a few moments they both burst out in laughter. Pretty soon they were both giggling all the way up to their apartment.

"Seriously, Cait, as your best friend, I have the right to know. Do you _like_ Nate?"

"Um…uh…well—" She was abruptly cut off by the ringing of their telephone.

"Saved by the bell." Mitchie commented with a smirk as Caitlyn glared at her. "You better answer that, it's probably your mom."

At that Caitlyn rushed over to the phone and put against her ear.

Mitchie laughed and shook her head before plopping down on their couch, smiling to herself as she reminisced about her day. Shane had been great, despite his bout of annoyance that had come out of their waitress situation, but everyone was annoyed by her, so that didn't really count. A few days ago she wished an ocean would just separate them, but now it was almost unbearable to be away from him.

Thankfully Shane chose that moment to text her. She grinned as she pulled her cell out of her pocket and read his message.

**Help. Me.**

She scrunched her eyebrows at his message. What could that mean? But before she got a chance to reply, he chose to send another one.

**Sorry. That might've not been the best thing to send. But I'm being attacked by fan girls. It's very frightening.**

She laughed and shook her head before responding.

_Are you being nice to them Shane?_

**Yea! I've even managed to smile at a few of them! But they're like trying to jump on me!**

She couldn't help her laughter, and she could practically picture him pouting. Oh God, this was so not helping the fact that she wished she were with him. Sighing, but not being able to hold back her smile, she responded again.

_Hey, you're strong, you can fight them off. Ha. You can get through it pop star, and as soon as you do, I'll be expecting a call._

She smirked to herself as she hit the send button. She loved being able to talk to Shane like this. To just have a fun conversation, and not argue, or having to worry about his ego getting too out of hand. It just made her want him to get through with that signing even sooner. Though it would be much better if he were actually there with her. A few minutes later, she got another text.

**Awww come on! That'll so not help me get through this! I wanna talk to you now!**

She rolled her eyes, and once again she could pretty much see him pouting. And briefly she wondered if he was actually supposed to be texting her, or if he was supposed to be signing merchandise for the fans. But it didn't take long for her to not really care, if this was the only form of communication she'd be getting from him, she wasn't going to complain, as long as she was talking to him, she just didn't care.

_I wanna talk to you too, pop star, but you'll have to get through the signing first!"_

She figured her smile couldn't get any wider, but it only took a second for it to fade when Caitlyn joined her in their living room, looking very worried.

"Cait, what is it?" Mitchie asked cautiously.

"Well, that was my mom on the phone, and she had picked out the place she wanted to eat, but, Mitch, we have a problem." Caitlyn spoke slowly.

Mitchie raised her eyebrows expectantly, waiting for Caitlyn to explain. But she never did.

"And what would that problem be, Cait?"

Caitlyn chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, looking oddly nervous.

"Well, I was reminded that our parents, _both_ of our parents…hate Connect 3!"

Mitchie nearly gasped. Shit. She forgot about that. Their parents didn't only hate their music, which Mitchie didn't get at all, but they just hated them altogether. With all the bad press, and terrible tabloids, they _really_ hated Shane. They hated anyone who came off with a bad attitude, and Shane was definitely at the top of their hate list.

"Oh, shit. Caitlyn if my parents find out that I've been hanging out with Connect 3, and more specifically, _Shane,_ they'll flip. No, they'll do worse, they'll disown me!"

"Oh, come on Mitch, the worse they'll do is go and kill Shane." She shrugged, but Mitchie glared at Caitlyn.

"Like that's any better." Mitchie stood up and started pacing, not even noticing her phone going off, courtesy of Shane's text messages.

"What am I going to do?" She asked Caitlyn desperately.

"Well, you can always not mention him, you don't have to tell them yet, Mitchie."

"But I know our parents, Cait. Most of the dinner will go by with them insulting him and the guys, and I don't think I can go an entire night listening to that and agree to that!"

Caitlyn sighed, stumped, because she knew Mitchie was right. Their parents and practically their entire family, just wanted the band to disappear off the face of the earth. And Caitlyn didn't think she could sit through all of that either.

"You're right, but what are we going to do? Maybe we could try and tell them that Shane has changed without actually giving away that we've been hanging out with him."

Mitchie shook her head. "They won't have any of that, Cait. They wouldn't give him a chance ."

Sighing, she groaned and plopped back down on the couch, but her gaze fell to her ringing cell phone, she just figured Shane was texting her again, but to her surprise he was calling her. She frowned in thought. She thought he wasn't allowed to call her until the signing was over.

"Hey, I thought you weren't allowed to call me until later?"

"Well yeah, but you didn't respond to my texts, I thought something was wrong."

She managed a smile, feeling better now that she could hear his voice.

"Well, actually—"

"Something's wrong?" He sounded alarmed. "What? What is it?"

"Shane calm down, it's just…family issues."

"Family issues? Wanna talk about it?"

She smiled at how considerate he was being, but she rolled her eyes once it finally hit her that he was supposed to be making his fans happy.

"Aren't you supposed to be at the signing, Shane?"

"Well, yeah, but I really wanted to talk to you, and if something's bothering you, I want to help."

"That's sweet, Shane, but it's a long story. Why don't you get back to your signing, and I promise to tell you later. _After_ you're done with the signing."

She shook her head when she heard him groan on the other end of the line.

"Fine, I guess I'll call you later. Bye."

"Bye." She smiled and turned her cell phone off. Instantly missing the sound of his voice.

She and Caitlyn sat in silence for a few minutes, just trying to collect their thoughts, but all they could come up with was negative.

"If they find out about me and Shane, they won't let me see him, they'll do anything to keep me away from him." Mitchie commented, getting severely depressed. Forget about not being able to talk to Shane, how was she going to cope with being banned from seeing him?

"Mitch, we're almost twenty, we're allowed to hang out with who we want." Caitlyn commented with a shrug. Mitchie gave her a look.

"Cait, have you met our parents?"

Caitlyn sighed, but it turned into a groan. Shane was the bad boy of the press, but their parents didn't like any member of Connect 3, so that meant no Nate or Jason either. But Mitchie was right. Their parents would go to extreme measures to keep them away from people they didn't like. They were a little too overprotective and judgmental.

"What are we gonna do, Mitch?"

"We just have to make sure our parents don't find out about the guys." Mitchie sighed. "It's the only thing we can do."

She didn't know if she'd be able to do that. Her mother and grandmother were very opinionated, and very verbal about it. Especially when it came to things, or people, they didn't like.

"When is this torturous dinner going to happen?" She was afraid for the answer. And obviously, Caitlyn was afraid to answer her.

"Uh…well, my parents were going on a cruise next week, and they wouldn't be able to come, and naturally, your parents didn't think it would be the same, so everyone's flying in tomorrow night."

"Oh, damn it." Mitchie groaned. "How the hell are we supposed to prepare for it in one day?!"

Caitlyn shrugged helplessly. It was going to be very interesting that was for sure.

Silence once again filled the room, both girls too depressed and worried to even talk about it. But the silence was broken when Mitchie's ringtone blared throughout the room.

Mitchie was relieved to find that Shane was calling her. She wasted no time in answering.

"Hey, pop star, that signing better be over. I'd hate for you to get into trouble." She smiled as she listened to him chuckle, her worries melting away for the moment.

"Don't worry, it ended earlier than expected when a girl tried to jump over the table and attack Jason." He sounded a little too amused at that, and it made Mitchie laugh.

"Well, is he ok?"

"Yeah, a little freaked, but I think that gave him a little ego boost."

"I hope you haven't been giving him tips on how to handle those."

"Ha ha. Very funny. But you know what I'm about to ask, Mitch."

Her smile slowly slipped off her face and she sighed. But then a thought came to her, and she managed a small smile.

"Alright, I'll tell you, but I'd rather be talking to you face to face. Do you think you could manage not getting lost if I gave you directions to my apartment?"

His expressions were so easy to tell over the phone. He was grinning and she knew it.

"Absolutely."

She quickly gave him directions. She just hoped he'd get here quick, she wanted to spend as much time with him as possible, especially if her parents found out about him. She would just have to prepare herself for the worst. Because it might just come. But she was praying it wouldn't. A week ago she didn't want to have a thing to do with Shane. But now she didn't know if she could live without him.

She tapped her foot anxiously as she waited for Shane to arrive. She hoped he would understand. She didn't know what she would do if he didn't.

"Mitch, will you calm down, you'll have an entire day with him tomorrow, he's not gonna disappear off the side of the earth. No matter how much our parents wish he would." Caitlyn giggled, considerably happier, especially after Mitchie had given her Nate's number and they spent forever texting each other.

Finally, there was a knock on the door, and Mitchie felt relief flood through her as she practically flew to the door, swinging it open, only to find a smiling Shane. Sighing with relief, she smiled back at him, grabbing his hand and pulling him into the apartment.

"So, you didn't get lost, did ya?" She teased him. He just chuckled and shook his head.

"Nah, but that could also have something to do with the fact that my driver has a pretty good sense of direction." He laughed.

She rolled her eyes but continued in pulling him into the apartment. Before any words were exchanged between the two, they both heard Caitlyn giggling and talking into her cell phone. Mitchie rolled her eyes again before glancing up at Shane to mouth the word 'Nate.'

Shaking her head, she decided to give the two of them some privacy, and pulled him into her bedroom. They both sat down on Mitchie's bed, her hand never leaving his.

"So…what's going on, Mitch?"

She sighed, becoming very hesitant, and looking down away from Shane, making Shane become very concerned.

"Come on, Mitch, you can tell me."

"I know I can, Shane, it's just…hard."

Shane sighed before using his free hand to cup her cheek, making her look up at him. He tried to be as comforting as possible. She sighed slowly, finding enough comfort to make words.

"My my family and Caitlyn's are flying in tomorrow, instead of next week."

Shane scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. "What's so bad about that?"

"Well, you remember how I said I never listened to all the press and tabloids about you?" He nodded. "I was the only one in my family that didn't listen. And Shane…they really don't like you. Or Nate or Jason. And Shane, I mean it when I say that if they found out that I know you, they wouldn't let me talk to you or do anything that involves you."

"Oh." Was all that he said for a moment. "So what are you going to do?"

"Well, for the time being, we're just not going to mention that we know you guys. But we'll defend you if it calls for it. There's really not much we can do." She shrugged.

Sighing, he nodded his head. "I'm sure you'll get through it, Mitch."

"So you're not mad that I'll have to pretend I don't know you in front of my family?" She asked unsurely.

Shane smiled and shook his head. "No, not mad. I mean, I understand, but it is kinda harsh that your family hates me so much." He chuckled very lightly.

"I'm sorry, Shane, I don't want them too, they just—" He cut her off quickly.

"Don't worry about it, Mitch. I'm sure everything will turn out just fine." He tried to be extra reassuring.

"I hope so. But…just in case…" She trailed off, and it only took Shane a moment to realize she was leaning forward towards him, and he knew what was coming. He helped her out by leaning forward as well, until their lips finally pushed together. It was soft and tender, but it managed to make a million emotions explode inside of them.

Too quickly, their lips separated, but they stayed just as close as they were when they were kissing. Mitchie smiled softly and moved to where her head was resting on his shoulder. He slowly wrapped his arms around her, trying to take in as much of her as possible, because he didn't if he'd get the chance to do so again.

Mitchie was feeling the exact same way. It was going to be incredibly painful if her parents found out about Shane. Mitchie didn't know if she had the strength to be away from Shane anymore.

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**So tell me what ya think, like in the last chapter, more reviews, the quicker the next chapter will come, it's already written and everything.**


	13. Chapter 13

**This one started out really short, but I made it longer. It's mainly just leading up to the next chapter, which I promise will be longer.

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**The day was going to go by too fast. Mitchie was almost sure of that. As bad as it might've sounded, she was dreading the moment when she and Caitlyn had to pick up their families. She was scared that she'd go a little too far in defending Shane and the boys, and she'd say something that would give it away, therefore resulting in not being able to see them ever again. It hurt too much to even think about that. But she was looking forward to spending the day with the guys. Thankfully they had the day off, so they could be together until the moment where she and Cait had to leave later that night.

Of course, Caitlyn went with her to see the guys, and they spent most of the time on the bus, just talking and hanging out. Mitchie stayed glued to Shane's side the entire time, he definitely wasn't complaining though. He wanted to get in just as much time together as she did. He knew that night was going to be hard for her, and he wished that she didn't have to go through it. Even though it was her family, she shouldn't have to hide something as big as a really close relationship just to avoid her parents hating her for it. It didn't seem fair.

They all did their best to not talk about what was to come that night.

Just a couple hours before the girls had to leave, everyone seemed to notice when Mitchie got really quiet. But before Shane could get to ask, Nate got there first.

"Hey, Mitch, will you come here for a sec?" He asked, standing up from his position next to Caitlyn on the floor and motioned for Mitchie to follow him into privacy of the main bedroom. She nodded her head and reluctantly moved away from Shane to follow Nate.

After she was in, Nate locked the door after he closed it.

"Talk to me, Mitch. What's on your mind?" He asked as he guided her to sit down on the bed. She sighed deeply, fiddling with her hands out of nerves. She didn't plan on holding back. Nate was beginning to become her best friend. But that's what made everything all the harder. Not only would she not be allowed to see Shane if her parents found out, but she wouldn't get to see Nate or Jason either. And though she wasn't as close to them as she was Shane, she didn't think she could stand having to part with the two guys who had become her best friends.

"I'm scared, Nate. What if my parents find out, and they won't let me see you guys again? I don't know if I can handle it." She confided quietly.

"Look, Mitch. It's their problem if they don't like us. But they shouldn't ban you from hanging out with us, you just have to tell them that, if it comes to that point anyways." Mitchie sighed, he was right, but he didn't know her parents, or Caitlyn's. They did anything as long as they got their way in the end. And that's what Mitchie was scared of most.

"Nate, you don't understand. They'd do anything to keep me or Cait away from anything bad, and they pretty much think all three of you are bad."

"It's your life, Mitch. You have control over it. Not your parents, not Caitlyn's, not anyone. They can't make you do anything." Nate spoke softly.

She nodded her head. She just wished it could be that simple. But nothing would stop her from trying. She'd do everything in her power to make sure that her favorite three boys would be in her life forever.

She smiled softly at Nate, thankful that she had a friend like him. She just hoped she'd get to keep him.

"Thanks, Nate." Nate smiled back at her, before nodding his head in response.

"Well, I guess we should get back out there before Shane starts to think that I've kidnapped you." He joked with a grin, making Mitchie laugh, quickly taking her mind off the uneasy thoughts.

Before he could get to the door, Mitchie stopped him and pulled him into a hug, which he gladly returned.

"Really, Nate, I appreciate you being here for me so much."

"Don't worry about it, Mitch. I'd do anything for ya." He smiled as she pulled back and leaned up to give him a friendly kiss on his cheek before exiting the room, followed by Nate.

Smiling again, she plopped down at her respective spot next to Shane, laying her head on his shoulder. And Nate took his spot next to Caitlyn once again, who merely smiled up at him.

The rest of the day passed way too quickly for anyone's liking. Mitchie was about to explode from nerves as the boys walked them back to their apartment building. Well, Nate and Shane did. Jason opted to give them some privacy. Gotta love Jason.

"Everything will work out fine, Mitch. I'm sure of it." Shane tried to reassure her, as well as himself. Mitchie took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves at least a little bit.

"I hope you're right, Shane. I really do." She tried to smile at him, but it came out rather pathetic. She leaned up towards him, planting a lingering kiss on his cheek before giving him a long hug, one that she didn't want to pull away from.

"I'll call you after I get home, ok?"

Shane nodded with what she knew was a reassuring smile, and it helped ease her a little bit. She smiled at him for another brief moment before moving over towards Nate, who was also smiling reassuringly at her. She just responded with a hug for him as well.

"I'll make sure Caitlyn calls you after we get home, 'kay?" She whispered in his ear, so only he could hear. She smirked as she pulled back and saw the light blush that was on his cheek.

"Thanks, Mitch."

Her smiled faded as she watched the boys walk away from them. She sighed heavily and turned to face a frowning Caitlyn.

"Now or never, Cait."

"Can I pick the never?" She mumbled sadly. Mitchie laughed quietly and shook her head before climbing into her SUV as Caitlyn trudged over to hers. They had to take two separate cars seeing as both of their families combined were way too big to fit in one car. It was actually a problem to fit them all in two cars, but somehow they made it work. But as of now, the only thing Mitchie wanted was to get through this sure to be stressful night.

The rather long drive up to the airport seemed excruciatingly short as she pulled into the parking lot, Caitlyn following soon after. Mitchie waited for Caitlyn before she started her walk into the airport.

"Time hates us, Mitchie. It really does." Caitlyn grumbled, and Mitchie even managed a short chuckle before they reluctantly trudged to the area where they had to pick up their families.

"I'm not ready for this, Cait." Mitchie complained as they made it to a few chairs. All that was left to do was wait. It was going to be exruciating.

"Me neither. I don't if I'll be able to stay away from the guys if this ends badly."

"I _know_ I won't be able to stay from Shane." She whispered sadly, but before Caitlyn could say anything more, they heard some very exciting shouting. Here it comes. Crap, now they had to put on happy faces.

"Mitchie! Caitlyn!" It was Mitchie's mom, Connie Torres, who shouted for them. She was leading the pack, in front of them by about ten feet and gaining. She literally sprinted towards Mitchie and Caitlyn, who had stood up so they could greet their family.

Connie nearly crushed Mitchie with her hug.

"Oh, mom, loosen up please, I can't breathe." Connie apologized, but still didn't ease up.

"Oh, I'm sorry, honey, it's just been so long since I've seen you!"

"Mom, I saw you last month."

"That's too long!" Connie insisted, making Mitchie roll her eyes, but she hugged her mom back anyways.

Finally, the rest of the group caught up, and Mitchie was pulled into at least twenty different hugs, and in no time at all they were all making their way out to the cars. Mitchie was getting more and more nervous. Thankfully, there wasn't any mentions of Connect 3 at all, she just prayed it would stay that way. It was highly doubtful, but she could hope, right?

There was always something that set off the hateful conversation that involved the guys, and both Mitchie and Caitlyn hoped that it wouldn't come to that. She wouldn't be able to stand listening to her family completely hate on the guy that she was hopelessly and pathetically in love with. It was hard enough having to worry about not ever seeing him again.

The drive started out perfectly fine, Mitchie even got to laugh a little bit at some jokes her cousins were making, and it was genuine laughing, and thankfully none of the jokes revolved around a certain band. But then it all went downhill when her father opted to turn on the radio. And who other than Connect 3 to be playing?

Mitchie winced when everyone in her car groaned and her dad quickly snapped the radio off, instantly not in the mood to listen to anymore music.

"I can't believe they play that crap." That came from Mitchie's oldest cousin, Jackson, he was 22, and his younger siblings, Jenna, 13, and Brad, 10, fully agreed with him. As did Mitchie's parents and her Aunt, Uncle, grandma, and grandpa. This is exactly what she wanted to avoid.

"How much longer until those losers fifteen minutes of fame are up? I'm getting sick of it. And them."

"Thinking they're all that. Especially that Shane Gray, punk…" Mitchie's fingers tightened around the steering wheel at the mention of Shane. "When's he gonna get the memo that nobody actually likes him?"

"Didn't you hear, Jack? He's gotten that memo, he's just too dumb to understand."

Mitchie gritted her teeth at her cousins. Why'd they have to hate on someone they didn't even know? It was completely pointless. It didn't do anything but annoy the crap out of other people. It wasn't like Shane was ever going to hear them, unless Mitchie told him. Which she sure as hell wouldn't. She didn't want him to know all the bad things that people were saying about him. Though he was probably aware of some things. Some stuffw was just unavoidable. Shit, thinking about Shane was really not helping Mitchie right now.

"What do you think, Mitchie?"

It was Jenna who asked the question that Mitchie didn't even catch.

"Huh?"

"What do you think about Shane Gray's latest egotistical act?"

Mitchie had to fight really hard to hold back her scowl, she managed to make her lips a tight line across her face. She was surprised she was able to maintain her cool.

"I think that Shane Gray's not here, and therefore we have no reason to talk about him."

Everyone looked at her oddly, but thankfully, put the subject at rest. For now. She knew it was going to come back later. It always did. She inwardly groaned. This was going to be a long night.

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**All right, there ya go, the next one will be the Torres/Gellar family dinner. Review please!**


	14. Chapter 14

The dinner was going worse than Mitchie or Caitlyn could even have nightmares about. It started off fine, everything was going directly away from Connect 3. That is, until Mitchie's cousin Jenna had to comment about the song that Mitchie's dad had accidentally turned on when they were in the car. It all went downhill from there.

"So, we got _way_ too close to listening to a Connect 3 song in Mitchie's car." Jenna shuddered while she reminisced. Mitchie had to hold back a glare. It was a good thing Caitlyn was sitting next to her so she could inconspicuously kick Mitchie under the table if she became too obvious.

It was Caitlyn's older brother, Scott, who had the next rude comment about the guys, but this time Mitchie was the one to nudge Caitlyn when the conversation turned towards the guys individually.

"All the crap they do is such an act, like that Nate loser, he's what, nineteen? He acts like the owner of a freaking billion dollar company. Way too snotty and 'professional.' "

It was hard when the conversation went towards Nate. Because Mitchie knew Caitlyn really liked him, so she would naturally defend him, but Nate was Mitchie's best friend, so Mitchie wanted to defend him just as much as Cait did.

"Yeah, and he's like the only one who talks to anybody, ego boy just sits there and glares at everything, and the other one, ya know, the dumb one just sits there and smiles like an idiot."

Mitchie bit down so hard on her lip it might have cut the skin. How could anyone talk about Jason like that? He was just a big kid, who got confused easily and found the light in everything. There was definitely nothing wrong with that. And Shane, well it was no surprise that they called him egotistical, because he was. He used to be anyways. Mitchie and Cait know he's not like that anymore. God, all she wanted to do was stick up for him. It was terrible having to listen to all the bad things they were saying about her friends.

The hateful conversation went on for several minutes, Mitchie and Caitlyn trying desperately to keep their mouths shut and their tempers in check, but their families were making that severely difficult.

"Cait? Mitchie? Are you two ok? You've been awfully quiet." Both of their heads snapped away from their plates of food to look at their family members, who were all staring at them curiously.

"Yeah…yeah we're fine…perfectly..normal. Right, Cait?" She tried averting all the attention to Caitlyn, who was a much better liar than Mitchie was. If Mitchie spoke too much she'd either say too much of the truth, or get stuck stuttering and fumbling for words, completely giving her away.

"Yup. Perfectly normal. This foods just really good." Everyone seemed satisfied with that as they went back to other conversation, and both girls inwardly thanked God that it wasn't about their boys.

But then it turned again, and Mitchie had to bite back her annoyance. Didn't these people have anything better to talk about instead of how much they hate Connect 3?

"Mitchie, Caity, you haven't contributed any to what we're saying."

"What do you mean, grandma?" Mitchie asked…cautiously.

"Uh, like how much we want Connect 3 to…disconnect?" It was Brad who made that incredibly lame joke. "What do you have to say to that?"

Mitchie sighed. "I say that everyone needs to find something other to talk about than three guys no one here even knows."

She was fed up. And that was an understatement. And she just wanted to direct the conversation elsewhere. She didn't know how much more hate talk she could stand. Oh what she'd do to be with Shane right now.

"But it's fun to trash those losers. They deserve it, especially that Shane freak. I mean, what a moron, he has every damn thing in the world, what the hell does he get after he storms off a stage?" Once again, Caitlyn's older brother. She had known him for years, he was almost like a big brother to her. But now all Mitchie wanted to do was shove a fork into his throat so he would shut up.

"He probably gets laid." All the teens, except Mitchie and Caitlyn laughed, the adults just shook their head at them. Mitchie gaped. That's it. That one comment made her snap. No one talked about Shane like that and got away with it.

"Shut up, Jackson." Mitchie snapped. Everyone instantly stopped laughing and before she knew it all eyes were on her, except Caitlyn's, who was too busy glaring at Jackson. She was obviously tired of all the talk too, because she made no move to try and stop Mitchie from letting her pent up anger out.

"What's your problem, Mitch?"

"You're my problem, Jack. You're insulting someone you don't even know." Despite her flaring anger, she tried to keep her cool and not give too much away about her relationship with Shane.

"Oh please, Mitch, the guy makes every headline, we know enough."

"And since when are tabloids always truthful? They just put shit out there to get paid! You don't know anything!"

"Michaela Torres, calm down." Connie scolded her daughter, who didn't even bother listening; she just continued to glare at her clueless cousin.

"And you do, Mitchie? Why the hell are you defending Shane Gray anyways? The guy's an ass."

"No you're an ass!"

"Mitchie! That is enough." Steve Torres bellowed. Mitchie looked at him incredulously, her mouth gaping.

"You're yelling at me? When all of you are insulting people you don't even know?!"

"It's different when you start insulting your family, Michaela."

She scowled; they didn't even know that when they insulted Shane they were insulting her. She couldn't tell them. She wanted to, just to shove it in their faces, but she couldn't risk not seeing Shane again. Especially when now all she wanted was to be held in his arms, just forgetting about her insensitive family.

Scoffing and shaking her head, she abruptly stood from her seat and stormed away from her family. How could they be so cruel to someone they didn't even know? It was incredibly stupid, and pathetic, and it bugged the shit out of her.

She took a deep breath as she stepped out into the cool, crisp, night air. She ran her hand through her hair when she heard footsteps behind her. She panicked, she didn't want to face any member of her family right now.

She breathed in relief when Caitlyn stepped out next to her.

"I know how you feel, Mitch. I just wanted to choke my brother when he started it all up."

"It's so much harder than I thought it would be, Cait. I can't stand them talking about Shane, or Nate, or Jason like they are. They're misinterpreting everything! It's not fair."

"I know, Mitch."

"Why do they have to hate him so much? It's not right. They can't hate Shane! Especially when I'm in love with him as much as I am."

Mitchie instantly regretted her words when she heard a gasp from behind her and Caitlyn. Shit. So much for privacy.

Mitchie turned around reluctantly, only to be met by her mom's shocked gaze.

"Michaela…did I hear what I think I just heard?"

Mitchie gulped. "Um…no?"

Connie took in one, sharp gasp,

"You're in love with Shane Gray?" Connie demanded. Mitchie bit on her lower lip for the millionth time that night.

"Michaela, answer me!"

"Yes! Ok, I'm in love with him."

"Mitchie that's absolutely ridiculous. You don't even know the boy!'

Mitchie sighed. She wasn't going to be able to get out of this one, even if she tried. She had to tell the truth before her mom went and blabbed about it to anything that had ears.

"Yeah, I do know him. And Nate. And Jason."

Connie scoffed incredulously. "I don't believe you."

"What do you mean you don't believe me?"

"Mrs. Torres…" Caitlyn quickly interrupted. "She does know them. _We_ know them."

"Michaela, Caitlyn. We did not raise you girls to lie like this."

Mitchie's eyes widened, tears very evident in them. "Mom we're not lying!"

"I'm very disappointed in you."

Mitchie and Caitlyn gaped at Connie as she walked back into the restaurant. But Mitchie now had tears spilling down her cheeks and she was near the point of sobbing.

"Mitchie, don't listen to her. You know the truth and that's all that matters. Why don't you go and call Shane, I'll give your car keys to your mom."

Mitchie managed a small and watery smile towards her best friend. She quickly hugged Cait and pulled her keys out and handed them to Caitlyn.

"Thanks, Cait." Mitchie whispered, still near sobbing. Caitlyn just smiled reassuringly at Mitchie and walked back into the restaurant.

Mitchie didn't waste a second in pulling out her cell phone and dialing Shane's number, which was becoming all too easy to remember. He answered before it even got to the second ring.

"Hey, Mitch! How'd it go?" He asked quickly, but she couldn't find the strength to giggle at him. But she unfortunately did manage to sob, which he caught on to immediately.

"Mitchie, what happened?" His voice was lower than it was when he first answered.

"They were horrible, Shane. And my mom overheard me talking to Caitlyn, privately, and she found out about you, and she doesn't even believe me, Shane! My own mom!" Her sobs were gradually getting worse.

"Oh, Mitch. I'm so sorry."

"Can you come pick me up?"

"Yeah, absolutely." He replied immediately. She hastily told him where she was, and he promised to stay on the phone with her until he found her. God, she was way too in love with him. It had to be unnatural.

Their talking was mainly him trying to comfort her. But she knew she wouldn't be fully comforted until she was with him. It was getting more and more painful the longer she was away from him. It was hard to even believe that not too long ago she completely hated his guts, now she can't stand to be away from him. She thought it would take much longer to start feeling this way about Shane. It was weird, but only because she had never felt such a strong and powerful emotion towards someone. She knew she was so far in love with him. She couldn't pretend that she wasn't, even if she wanted to. She _had_ been wanting to not be in love with him, to just try and put those feelings behind her and try to just be his friend, but the longer she spent with him, or even the more she thought about him, she fell farther into the emotion that she thought was impossible for a girl like herself to feel.

Sighing with relief, she watched as his car pulled up, all the pain of being away from him disappearing immediately. She knew he was being driven, so she just slid into the back seat, which definitely surprised him.

"Ok, you are making it really hard for me to be a gentleman. I mean, how can I open doors for you if you get there before I do?" She wanted to smile so bad at his words, but instead it just made her cry harder when she even saw him. The relief that she felt was absolutely tremendous.

Instantly his joking demeanor disappeared and it was replaced by one of comfort.

"Oh, Mitch." He whispered quietly as he wrapped his arms around and pulled her closer to him. She practically climbed into his lap and buried her face into the crook of his neck. He didn't complain. He let her cry. He let her get it all out of her system, hopefully it would exhaust her, and then she'd be able to sleep.

She was clinging tightly to him, and he didn't fully understand why, but he let her. He wanted to be there for her, and he was glad she was letting him. But he really hated seeing her like this, so upset, so hurt. It wasn't a sight he liked at all.

After he told him where to go, the driver took off to Mitchie's apartment complex. Mitchie cried almost the entire way there. Though a few minutes before they arrived, she finally seemed to drift off. Smiling gently at her, he picked her up bridal style and carried her _very carefully_ out of the car and towards her apartment. He rolled his eyes when he found the door unlocked, and made a mental note to scold Mitchie about that later. But now he just wanted to get her to her bed.

He remembered where her room was from the other night, so when he was in, he gently laid her on the bed before standing straight again. Sighing, he knew he couldn't leave her; he'd have to crash on their couch. He was sure Caitlyn wouldn't mind. But damn it the couch was just too far away from her. What if she needed him? He wanted to be there right away, and he sure as hell didn't want her to wake up and not have him there, and then have her think that he just left her.

Though, he was shocked when he felt Mitchie's hand pulling on his, and her soft and exhausted voice floating through his ears.

"Shane…don't go. Stay with me."

"I'm not going anywhere, Mitch, I promise. I'll just crash on your couch." She groaned.

"No, pop star, I meant stay with me in the bed."

He raised his eyebrows. Oh. Well, it'd certainly be close enough to her. But he wasn't sure…

"Please, Shane?" She pleaded tiredly, her eyes not even open.

He couldn't argue with her. So he pulled off his shoes and his jacket and he climbed into the bed next to Mitchie, who instantly curled up next to him, her head leaning comfortably against his chest. He smiled gently as his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer to him.

He was just about to close his eyes and try to sleep when Mitchie's voice caught him off guard again.

"I love you, Shane." She whispered tiredly, almost inaudibly. But he heard her loud and clear. And he smiled a very wide and tired smile, but only because it sounded like she meant it. He didn't think he'd be hearing those words from her for a long time, but he replied just as sincerely.

"I love you too, Mitchie."


	15. Chapter 15

That night was a rough one for Mitchie. She couldn't sleep very well, despite being completely mentally exhausted. But she knew it would've been a lot worse had it not been for Shane. Every time she woke up, she felt Shane's arms around her and her head would be comfortably pressed against his chest. She tried to get back to sleep every time, not wanting to wake him up or bother him at all.

But finally, after about the fifth time she woke up, she couldn't get back to sleep. It was about three in the morning. Sighing, she looked at Shane, who was still sleeping peacefully, a serene expression plastered across his already adorable face. She couldn't help but to smile weakly at him. Though it instantly changed into a frown as she thought about getting a glass of milk. Milk never failed to calm her down and put her back to sleep. But getting a glass, meant she'd have to leave her very comfortable position against Shane. But her need for milk won over as she very reluctantly pulled herself out of his arms. She had to suppress a giggle as a frown crossed his face and his arms attempted to tighten their hold around her.

Mitchie rolled her eyes, even while sleeping he was incredibly needy. Shaking her head and grinned she carefully stepped out of the bed and then the room.

As she passed Caitlyn's room, she noticed the door was still open. And after investigating, found that there was no one occupying her room. Panic instantly bubbled up inside of her as she walked a little faster out into their living room. Sighing with relief she saw Caitlyn sleeping on the couch. She shook her head again and continued on into the kitchen.

Wait. Hold up. That wasn't part of the couch. Mitchie instantly backed up into the living room once again. She laughed under her breath in amusement as she saw that it was Nate that Caitlyn was laying on top of.

Caitlyn must have called him after she got back home. Chuckling quietly to herself, she made her way back into the kitchen, pulling out a glass and then the getting the milk from the refrigerator, silently pouring herself a glass.

Sighing, Mitchie leaned up against the counter next to the fridge, quietly sipping at her milk as the thoughts of what had happened between her family last night came flooding back to her. She knew she'd have to deal with them again. And it'd be worse than ever because she knew her mom would blab about what she had overheard. Even if she didn't believe what Mitchie had said. She'd still share it with the rest of the family. And then Mitchie would never hear the end of it. She was worried. Beyond worried. If the rest of her family figured out that she really was in love with Shane, and that she wasn't just some crazed fan, she didn't know how they would react. She was scared of their reaction.

Maybe they would just give it a rest. Maybe after they figured out that she liked the guys, they would give the band a chance and give Mitchie a chance to explain herself. Mitchie scoffed to herself. Yeah, she was almost positive that would never happen. Her family wasn't like that. They stuck to their opinions whether anyone else liked it or not.

"So do you always wake up at three in the morning to drink milk?" She jumped when she heard Nate's tired voice enter the kitchen.

She bit her lip, hoping she hadn't woken him up when she passed through the living room.

"I-I didn't wake you up, did I?"

Nate chuckled quietly and shook his head, much to her relief. She didn't want to be responsible for an extra tired Nate. She smiled softly at him.

"No, Mitch, you didn't. Promise. I was having a tough time sleeping anyways."

Mitchie frowned in concern. How could he have a tough time sleeping?

"Why?"

"I was, well, _am_…worried." He admitted quietly, with a quick shrug.

"Is that really all you're going to give me? Come on, Nate, out with it, I'm gonna ask what you're worried about anyways." She tried to smile at him, and was glad when she heard him laughing quietly.

"Well, Caitlyn was telling me about what happened, and how you're mom found out, and I'm just worried that I won't get to see you or Caitlyn again. I mean, she told me that you're mom would more than likely tell the rest of your family what you said about Shane."

"But, Nate, she didn't believe me anyways. They're just going to think I'm some crazy fan."

"But you're not, Mitchie. What happens when they figure _that_ out?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, Nate." She just hoped that bridge would never come. She was just as worried as Nate was.

"You've become one of my best friends, Mitchie. I don't know what I'd without you anymore." Mitchie felt herself choke up when she heard the sweet and sincere words come from Nate's mouth. Biting her lip she placed her milk down and walked over to Nate, instantly wrapping him in a hug. He returned it instantly.

After a few moments, she pulled back a little bit, keeping her arms loosely around Nate's neck.

"I love you, Nate. Like a brother." She grinned when he laughed and shook his head at her, his smile coming much easier than before.

"And I love you like a sister, Mitch." She smiled brightly at him before leaning up and placing a sweet kiss on Nate's cheek.

"So, I comfort you after last night and you're still chasing after my best friend?" Shane's voice floated through to them, and instantly Mitchie's bright smile was directed towards Shane. Ignoring his question, she pulled away from Nate before rushing to Shane.

As soon as she was close enough, her arms were around his neck, catching him off guard.

"And I just love you, Shane." Her smile seemed to get wider, but Shane didn't notice, because the second she said her words, her lips were pressed fiercely against his. As surprised as he was, he responded eagerly.

Nate not so subtly cleared his throat. Very loudly, as to get their attention. They broke away from each other to look at Nate.

"Could you two at least wait until I'm out of the room to start making out?"

"And yet you're making no move to leave the room." Shane pointed out, with a playful glare aimed at his best friend. Nate rolled his eyes but sauntered past them and back towards the living room where Caitlyn was still sleeping.

Shane grinned and looked down at Mitchie, who was just staring up at him lovingly.

"What happened to taking things slow, Mitch?"

"That was before I realized I might be banned from seeing you. I love you, Shane, I'm sick of hiding it. I just want to be with you. But I'm afraid if I am, my parents will find out and then I won't be able to."

Shane sighed as he placed his forehead against Mitchie's, trying his best to comfort her. He was scared to death of what her parents would do. He had fought so hard to be with Mitchie, and he wasn't just going to have her ripped away from him. He didn't know if he could handle being without her. Not talking to her, not seeing her, not touching her. It would drive him crazy.

"Mitchie…you've just gotta stand up for yourself. It's your life."

"I don't know if I can, Shane." Shane just laughed.

"Are you kidding, Mitchie? The first time we met you did nothing but stand up for yourself, and several times after that. You've got so much confidence and strength, and I know you can fight it if you really want to."

Mitchie sighed. It was different with her family. She wasn't scared of Shane. She wasn't intimidated by Shane. But it was different with her family. She was scared _and _intimidated by them, because she knew how much they could do when they put their minds to it. But Shane's words struck something in her. She had always been a loud and opinionated person, but when it came to her family, she was always shy and reserved, because her entire family was just as loud and opinionated as she was. But maybe if she could just be a little louder, they would listen to her. It was a long shot though.

"Hey," Shane whispered quietly to her after a few minutes of silence from her. "I know you can do it, Mitch."

"And I will do it, Shane. Because I love you." She smiled softly at him.

"I love you too."

She leaned up and placed her lips on his once again. The kiss was soft and sweet, but it managed to make her heart melt like butter, and her blood warmed immensely as Shane held her in his arms and kissed her with so much love and devotion.

Then they were so rudely interrupted when Mitchie felt a pillow hit her on the side of her head. She pulled away from Shane so she could glare at a laughing Caitlyn. Stupid Nate. He _would _wake Caitlyn up just to annoy Mitchie and Shane.

"Very mature, Cait." Mitchie remarked with a mischievous grin before picking up the pillow and throwing it back at Caitlyn, hitting her square in the face. Her laughter instantly stopped, but Mitchie's picked up.

"Alright, you kids, way past your bedtime." Nate played along, but was mildly serious, seeing as it _was _nearly three-thirty in the morning.

"We really should get to bed though, I need my beauty sleep." That of course came from Shane, though he was teasing. But it didn't stop Mitchie from rolling her eyes. "But…" He continued a little more seriously. "Maybe we should go back to the bus, we don't want to be intruding on you girls."

"No!" Was the only response he got from both girls.

"You choose _now_ to be polite?" Nate demanded. Shane just rolled his eyes.

"Ok, well I guess I can just sleep on the couch or something…"

"Absolutely not, pop star. You're staying with me." Mitchie ordered, smiling.

"Are you sure, Mitch—"

"Seriously, Shane, stop being so polite, it's getting on my nerves." Mitchie teased. Shane just laughed and shook his head.

"So you hate me when I'm rude and arrogant, but you're annoyed by me when I'm trying to be nice and polite?"

"There's a line between polite, and _too_ polite. And besides, those are just the reasons I love you. So come on, I'm tired."

She grinned up at him, walking back towards her bedroom, but grabbing his wrist and pulling him with her as she passed him. Shane made no attempt at arguing with her. He knew better than to argue with her by now.

" 'Night, Nate. Caitlyn." Shane called back as Mitchie pulled him towards the bedroom, shutting the door after they were both inside.

Almost instantly she plopped down on the bed, but looked up at Shane as he just stood there, smiling at her.

"What are you doing, pop star, get over here, I need my pillow."

He beamed and laughed softly as he laid next to her. She happily curled up next to him. Her head resting on his chest, her arm draped across his stomach. His arms wrapped securely around her, holding her in place as she pressed up against him comfortably.

No words needed to be exchanged as they both fell into a deep, and comfortable sleep.

* * *

No more than a few hours later was Mitchie woken by the knocking of a door. Groaning, she tried to tune it out as she buried her face farther into Shane's chest, but the knocking refused to stop. Mitchie was eager to ignore it and get back to sleep, completely comfortable with her position against Shane.

But apparently, no one wanted her to get a peaceful sleep, because the knocking persisted. Mitchie groaned again, praying that Caitlyn would get it. She was closer to the door. Shane shifted under her, and she groaned, realizing that the knocking had woken up Shane as well

"Mitch?" She huffed when she heard his exhausted voice, and suddenly felt like killing whoever was at their door at...five-thirty in the morning. She groaned, and figured she wasn't getting back to sleep anytime soon, so she reluctantly sat up, pushing a hand through her slightly messed up hair.

"Stay here, I'll be right back." She yawned, as she very reluctantly pulled out of Shane's arms for the second time that night and sauntered back out into the living room, where a nervous Caitlyn paced. Nate was still sleeping, surprisingly unaware of the knocking. Mitchie huffed and glared at Caitlyn.

"Are you two deaf or something, or are you just unable to answer a door?" Mitchie muttered grumpily. She wasn't a morning person. Especially when she was woken up from a very peaceful sleep with Shane.

"Mitch...It's Jackson."

Mitchie stopped dead in her tracks. What the hell was he doing here so damn early in the morning? But then it hit her. Two thirds of Connect 3 was sleeping in her apartment, one not to mention, in her _bed_. She gulped and glanced nervously at the door, where the knocking refused to stop.


	16. Chapter 16

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Okay, this chapter is admittedly not my best, I did the best I could though, because I didn't want to keep anyone waiting any longer. I think there might be only a few chapters left in this story, I might, just _might_ make a sequel, if enough people want it. But I don't want to overload myself with stories and make updates come even later than they sometimes do. But anyways, here's Chapter 16! Enjoy, and please don't forget to leave a review!

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Chapter 16

"J-Jackson? As in my _cousin_ Jackson?" Mitchie asked, desperately hoping that this was just some cruel joke that Caitlyn had thought up. But when Caitlyn looked at her helplessly, she knew it wasn't a joke.

What could Jackson possibly be doing at five-thirty in the freaking morning? Didn't most guys sleep until like, noon or something? If he came in and saw Nate on the couch, and then _Shane Gray_ in her _bed_, she'd be screwed. Because then he'd run and tell her parents and Caitlyn's parents, and both of their families!

Biting her lip, she knew she'd have to answer it soon, because Jackson was being very persistent, and if she didn't get rid of him now, he'd just bring everyone else over, and then they'd be really screwed.

Sighing nervously, she cautiously walked towards the door and slowly opened it, to reveal her bright and cheery cousin.

"Hey, Mitch! Did I wake you?"

Mitchie rolled her eyes. "No, Jack, I'm always awake at five-thirty in the damn morning." She grumbled.

Jackson just grinned. "Still not a morning person, huh Mitch?"

"Go to hell, Jackson."

"Whoa, take it easy, Mitch. Just dropped by to say hi."

"Who says 'hi' to someone at five-thirty?!" She demanded, already fed up with her cousin. There had to be a reason that he was there. He didn't just stop by randomly for the hell of it.

"Look, I was just taking my morning jog and I was passing by, is that a crime?" He chuckled. And Mitchie huffed, finally realizing that it was Jackson who woke up at like four every morning just to run.

"Okay, well you said 'hi' and I would like to go back to bed."

"Alright, alright, chill out. I guess I'll just talk to you later." He eyed her suspiciously, catching on to her slightly odd behavior.

"Yeah, alright-" But Mitchie was cut off abruptly when she heard Shane calling out her name, and she watched as Jackson's eyes widened.

"Is there a _guy _in there, Mitchie?" Jackson demanded, his happy and cheery demeanor disappearing immediately. Mitchie gulped, her family was so overprotective, and of course Jackson would be pissed if he found out that there was a guy, any guy, in her apartment at five-thirty in the morning.

"Yeah. So. I'm nineteen, I can have guys in my apartment if I want to. Now, goodbye."

"Mitchie-" Jackson started off, but Mitchie had already slammed the door in his face and she was looking at a sheepish looking Shane, and Nate, who had barely just woken up.

"And now we have to hope that he doesn't drag my parents here." Mitchie groaned as she leaned her head against the door.

Shane sighed as he looked at Mitchie. He wished he could just make everything better for her. She shouldn't have to be worrying about something like this. Her family should just learn to be supportive, and more understanding than they have been. It wasn't fair to put someone through something like they were putting Mitchie through.

Shane didn't know what to do to help her though, he could always comfort her, and do whatever she needed him to do, but that wouldn't help the situation any.

But then he had an idea. His eyes widened, and a small smile appeared on his face the second it hit him. He glanced quickly over to Nate, who looked confused and tired. But that didn't stop Shane from stepping over to him, grabbing his arm, and start pulling him back towards Mitchie's bedroom.

"We'll be right back." He stated quickly after he noticed the confused glances from Caitlyn and Mitchie.

He shoved Nate into the bedroom, and shut the door behind him.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Nate demanded. "We should be helping Cait and Mitchie."

"And I know how we can. It might be a little harsh for us, but it might help."

Nate looked at Shane nervously. "What are you talking about?"

"You and I need to find their families."

Nate's eyes widened in shock. "Dude, their parents hate us."

"Yeah, they do, because they think we're all egotistical and stuck up. But if we find them, we can try to convince them that we really aren't like that. Anymore anyways."

Nate still seemed rather unsure about Shane's idea, he didn't know whether that would work or make things worse or not. But he had a point, their families probably wouldn't listen Caitlyn and Mitchie when they said that Shane changed.

"Do you really think it would work?"

Shane shrugged. "I don't know, but we have to do something. And I don't know about you, but being banned from seeing Mitchie is not okay with me."

Nate sighed, but nodded his head. Shane was right, they couldn't just sit around and watch their friends get bullied by their own families.

"Okay, but let's get Jason, too. And we probably shouldn't tell the girls, they probably wouldn't want us to."

Shane agreed, and nodded his head along to Nate's words.

"Awesome, we can go back to the bus and grab Jason, and then we'll just find—wait how will we find their families?" Shane panicked.

Nate tried to think of something, but there were so many hotels in LA. "Well, Mitchie's cousin said he was running nearby, so the hotel has to be around here. What hotels are around here?"

"Umm…Oh! The Hilton!" Nate glared and smacked Shane on the side of the head.

"The Hilton?! Shane I don't think their families could afford it, especially if that many people!"

Shane frowned. He didn't know what other hotels there were, the guys mainly stayed at the Hilton, or on their tour bus. "Maybe we should just ask the girls."

He didn't want to, because they would try and talk them out of it. And if there was something that Shane wouldn't be able to fight, it would be Mitchie. But they had to go through with this plan, he didn't want to just sit back and worry about whether or not he'd be able to see Mitchie again.

"Yeah, that's probably _not _a good idea." Nate shook his head. He was as determined as Shane was, but he just didn't know how to pull it off.

"I got it!" Nate exclaimed. "We can call Jason and ask him to scope out the hotels around, he'd have to find something."

Shane shrugged, considering the option. "Well, we have to try something."

Nate grinned. "Give me your phone and I'll call him. You keep the girls distracted."

Shane grinned, more than willing to do that part.

As Nate dialed on his cell phone, Shane sauntered back out to where Mitchie and Caitlyn were talking quietly to each other. Though they both snapped their gazes towards him when they noticed him walking into the room.

"Hey, what were you and Nate talking about?" Mitchie asked, slightly suspicious.

Shane had to hold back from grimacing, he didn't want to have to be lying to Mitchie. He just had to remind himself that he was doing this to help her.

"Oh, I just had to tell him something." Mitchie eyed him carefully, and he nearly cracked under her scrutinizing gaze.

"Tell him what?" Shane tried avoiding her gaze and distracted himself by picking up his phone that he had on her coffee table, and pretending to do something on it.

"Oh, I'll tell ya later, not that big of a deal."

"Are you sure—"

"Hey, Shane, come here."

Thankful for the interruption, Shane smiled and gave Mitchie a kiss on her cheek before practically sprinting back into the bedroom where Nate was holding his phone, and he could distinctly hear Jason over the speakerphone.

"Jase is at the smaller hotel right next to the Hilton." Nate explained.

"_Shane, do you at least know what one of them looks like? I don't know what I'm looking for!"_ Jason complained over the phone, and Shane just sighed. He had never seen her parents before, or anyone of her family. He had gotten close to seeing her cousin just an hour ago, but Mitchie had made sure not to open the door all the way.

"Sorry, Jase, I've never—"

"Wait! That picture on her nightstand, who's it of?" Nate exclaimed pointing at the picture that was indeed on Mitchie's nightstand. Shane instantly went to grab it, but he stopped when he heard Jason start talking again.

"_Hey guys, there's a lot of people in here who are like, glaring at me, and it's kind of scaring me…"_ Shane and Nate shared a look, well, they were supposed to hate all members of Connect 3.

"Stay there, Jason, we're on our way, I think that's who we're looking for." Nate said quickly.

"_Okay, just hurry, before they start throwing things at me. I don't wanna—Oh! Is that a picture of a bird!?"_

Shane and Nate glanced confusedly at each other before the line cut off. Shane rolled his eyes as Nate put the phone back into his pocket and they both walked back out into the living room.

"Hey, we've gotta get back to the bus for a minute, check up on Jason, we'll be back though." Shane stated as he watched Mitchie sigh at his words.

"You promise you'll come back?" The genuine worry in her voice nearly made Shane roll his eyes, but instead he walked over to her, placed his hands on her cheeks softly and smiled.

"I promise." He said simply, before placing his lips over hers.

As he started to pull away, Mitchie grabbed his arms and pulled him back closer to her. She knew it must've seemed stupid that she was worried about him not coming back. But she wouldn't blame him, especially with her whole family hating him. He had every reason to want to leave and never talk to her again. But his eyes had showed so much honesty and love that she couldn't help but to believe him.

Finally, she pulled away from him and offered him a small smile, one which he gladly returned before he and Nate once again headed for the front door. They said goodbye one more time before finally leaving.

* * *

The walk to the hotel wasn't a long one, especially since it was still fairly early and there weren't too many people crowding the streets or sidewalks. But both Nate and Shane's nerves built up the closer they got. What if the plan didn't work? What if what they did just made everything so much worse? Shane was nearly to the point of distress. He just prayed that it worked, and everything would turn out fine, and he wouldn't have to worry about hiding anything with Mitchie.

They both took a deep breath as they finally approached the quaint hotel, looking odd sitting right next to the extravagant Hilton. Walking inside, they instantly spotted Jason, staring at something on the wall, when they walked over to him they realized it was a picture of a bird.

Shane rolled his eyes and Nate just shook his head before Shane finally spoke up.

"Jason, where are they?" Shane asked quietly as he finally got his friends attention. Jason turned slightly and pointed not so subtly down the lobby to a large group of people, who were in fact glaring at all three of them. Shane and Nate shared another look before bravely, or as bravely as they could, walked towards where the group was.

When they approached them, it was Nate who spoke up. "Um, e-excuse me…" He stuttered, seeing as the glares intensified with every step they took. "A-Are you Mitchie Torres' and Caitlyn Gellar's families?"

Nate attempted to swallow the lump in his throat as he stared at the group of people who grew defensive at the mention of Mitchie and Caitlyn. Nate had to stick his hands in his pockets, just to hide the fact that they were shaking. Usually Nate was the calm and collected one, but he would lose just as much as Shane would if this didn't work out.

"What's it to you?" The man who spoke up had a sharp voice, but Shane could tell it was Mitchie's dad, Mitchie seemed to have gotten a lot of traits from her father, but he was pretty sure he could easily pick out her mother as well.

"Um, I'm Shane Gray, and these are my friends Nate and Jason." Jason though, was attempting to hide his face, trying to avoid the hateful glares as much as possible. "And we came to find you to talk about our friendship with Mitchie and Caitlyn."

"Friendship?" The voice that Shane recognized from earlier that morning spat out. "They're actually friends with you three? Aunt Connie, I thought you said Mitchie was lying when she said she knew them."

Jackson spoke accusingly.

"I thought she was, it just didn't seem that she was actually telling the truth." The woman, Connie, that Shane thought to be Mitchie's mom, spoke softer but still in a defensive way.

"Well, she was telling the truth." Shane spoke up again. "And we came here because we're aware that you don't like us very much. At all."

"And?" It was Mitchie's father who asked.

"And, well, we just wanted to come find you to ask if you would allow them to hang out with us, because they're our friends, and we don't want to lose them."

Scoffs sounded through the group, and Shane's heart dropped.

"Why should we? We're talking about my daughter here, Mr. Gray. And to be blunt, you three are stuck up, spoiled popstars."

Shane gritted his teeth, but held back any smart remark he had coming, and tried to be reasonable.

"I understand how you would come to that conclusion, but I promise you we are not like that, _I'm_ not like that. Not anymore anyways."

"Not anymore?" Connie piped in. "You can't just change in the snap of a finger, Shane."

Shane shook his head. "No I can't, and I didn't. It took time but I got there, and do you know how I got there? Because of your daughter." Shane's voice gradually started getting stronger, and more defensive. "She changed me, because she wasn't afraid to tell me I was like that. She'd shove it in my face, yell at me, and argue with me. But I did change. I didn't do it by myself, because I had my two best friends to help me, and Mitchie, and Caitlyn, too. Look, I admit, that I don't have the best history, but Mitchie can help me make a better future for myself and my friends. And you know what? I love her for that."

All the glares were instantly replaced with looks of shock.

"Yeah, I'm in love with Mitchie. And she knows that, and she loves me too." Nate nodded his head.

"So, please, don't take her away from me."

He noticed almost instantly Connie's eyes soften dramatically. And before he knew it she was smiling and rushing over to him before crushing him in a hug.

Shane was beyond the point of shocked at that point, and he glanced over at Nate and Jason, who seemed just as shocked. But eventually, he chuckled and hugged back. When she pulled back it almost looked like she had tears of happiness in her eyes.

"Of course we wouldn't ever do that. Oh how could we think so bad about these three boys, you boys seem so sweet."

Shane looked up towards Mitchie's dad, who seemed a lot more hesitant than Connie did. That worried Shane. What also worried him was the fact that Jackson, and another guy who looked about Jackson's age were glaring even harder at him, but he figured all that mattered was her dad's opinion.

Hesitantly, he glanced up towards the man.

"If you hurt her, I'll kill you." His words were dead serious, and Shane took them that way. And Shane could've sworn he even cracked a smile.

Smiling brightly, he looked over at Nate and Jason, who also had giant smiles on their faces. It was a lot easier than Shane anticipated. He knew he wasn't completely off the hook yet. But it was a start, at least. Now he didn't have to worry about whether or not he'd be banned from seeing Mitchie, because all he had to do was love her unconditionally. Which he was more than willing to do.

* * *

Oh, and who saw the Jonas Brothers Concert Movie!?!?! Wasn't it awesome!?!

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	17. Chapter 17

Mitchie paced nervously around her apartment, as she had been doing so for nearly an hour, and in return had eventually gotten Caitlyn to do the same thing. Their 3 boys had been gone for an hour and normally they would be perfectly fine about that, except for one, they didn't know where they were or what they were doing, and second they were on edge because of the phone call they had gotten from their parents not too long ago about how all three of the boys went and asked permission to be friends with the girls.

Mitchie absolutely couldn't believe that Shane went and stood up to several people who absolutely despised him, just to ask them if he could date Mitchie. She really didn't know that Shane was that serious about her, at least enough to confront her hateful parents and the rest of her family. She was shocked to say the least, especially as he mom ranted about how sweet Shane was, which was definitely not what Mitchie was expecting from her mother. And not to mention Nate and Jason stood up for them as well. They were officially her best friends, and she couldn't be any luckier to have 3 of the most amazing guys in her life.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, she finally heard the door clicking open to reveal her three boys.

Instantly, both Mitchie and Caitlyn stopped pacing and stared at them with wide, grateful eyes.

The boys stopped at the door and glanced at each other curiously, not aware that either girls knew what they had been up to.

"What?" Shane spoke up, chuckling quietly at the look that the two girls were giving them.

Mitchie said absolutely nothing, instead she merely walked towards her boyfriend. As soon as she was close enough to him, she put her hands on the side of his face and pulled his lips to hers and kissed him deeply, making everyone else in the room groan. But the two simply ignored everyone else in the room and focused solely on each other.

Mitchie's hands moved to where they were wrapped around his neck, her fingers digging deeply into the tresses of his hair, while his arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her impossibly closer to him.

"Come on, guys! Get a room!" Caitlyn called out, her annoyance lingering thickly in her tone.

Reluctantly, Mitchie tore her lips away from Shane's so she could glare at her best friend.

"Fine, we will." Mitchie smirked, and without another word, pulled Shane away from the living room and back into her bedroom where she immediately shut and locked the door behind them.

Shane smirked as soon as the click of the lock was heard. In an instant he placed his lips back over hers, one again pulling her as close to him as space would allow until he could feel every inch of her body flush against his.

In response, Mitchie carefully walked backwards in the direction of her bed, careful not to break the kiss, until her legs ran into the edge, and she didn't waste any time in lying down and pulling him on top of her.

Her hands plunged through his thick hair as their kiss gained more and more force, both of them pouring as much passion into it as possible.

They kept up the intense kiss for several minutes until breathing began to become an issue and they reluctantly pulled away from each other.

For several moments, whilst trying to catch their breath, they simple stared intently at each other.

"I love you." She whispered, almost afraid to break the silence that had engulfed them.

"I love you, too." He said just as softly, but the words were filled with complete and honest sincerity and it made Mitchie smile.

"Thank you." She breathed. Shane looked at her curiously.

"For what?"

"You talked to my parents, Shane. I just can't believe you did that for me."

Shane simply smiled and leaned down to touch his lips to hers for a brief moment before he replied. "I'd do anything for you."

Mitchie couldn't help the intense feeling of love she got as Shane whispered those words to her, and it was then she realized just how much she loved him. She always knew she had loved him, it was just now, in this intimate moment that was for just the two of them did she realize the exact effect that Shane Gray had on her. Just the way he looked at her, like she was the only girl in the world, and the way he said things with the utmost sincerity was absolutely amazing.

Smiling, almost to the point that there were tears in her eyes at the overwhelming feeling of love that she had for Shane, she tenderly pushed her hand through his hair in a loving gesture that had him leaning into her touch, closing his eyes and memorizing the feel of her hands.

Smiling a little more, Mitchie's grip tightened slightly on the back of his head, making him open his eyes only to find a smirking Mitchie. All the love she felt for him was still there, but suddenly there was an overwhelming feeling of lust that made her want Shane to touch her.

Of course, what girl wouldn't want that? He was Shane Gray after all.

Smirking, she ignored his questioning eyes, though she knew that he was aware of what she was up to. She leaned up and placed a lingering and sensual kiss to his lips before leaning back just a tiny bit.

"I think it's about time you show me just how much you love."

Let's just say he absolutely no problem in obliging.

* * *

Mitchie wasn't exactly sure what time it was, but she was positive that she really didn't give a damn. Because she couldn't be more content than she was at the moment. Her head was resting comfortably on Shane's chest as he played with a strand of her hair. They hadn't said a word for several minutes, but they didn't need to, they were completely fine with the completely comfortable silence that they were left in.

But finally she got a good whiff of how she smelled and he let out a small groan.

"Ugh, I need a shower. I smell like sex."

Shane chuckled quietly, and Mitchie enjoyed the feel of it rumbling through his chest. "That tends to happen after someone has had sex."

Mitchie rolled her eyes and playfully shoved him. "Smart ass."

She mumbled teasingly, and earned yet another chuckle from Shane.

"I am going to take a shower though." She started to sit up, but Shane groaned and attempted to pull her back down.

"Come on, you can shower later, stay with me." Mitchie giggled and shook her head, once again attempting to pull away from Shane's grasp.

"Shane, just let me take a shower. _Please?_" She asked sweetly, and Shane groaned, knowing he was no match for her and her cuteness, and he reluctantly let her go.

"Thank you." She grinned, leaning down to give him a chaste kiss to his lips and he groaned once more.

She shook her head at him before standing and stretching, earning an appreciative groan from Shane. She rolled her eyes in response.

"Hey, how about—"

"No." She grinned, knowing exactly what he was going to suggest."

"But you don't eve—"

"We're not having sex in the shower, Shane." She smirked as he huffed and settled back into her bed.

"Fine." He muttered, crossing his arms childishly, earning another giggle from Mitchie as she went into the bathroom, and locking the door behind her, much to Shane's dismay.

Sighing, Shane stumbled out of the bed in search of his clothes that had been thrown carelessly all over Mitchie's room. Once he was dressed and at least somewhat presentable, he sauntered out of Mitchie's bedroom and into the living room where Caitlyn and Jason sat, laughing about something that Jason was saying.

"Hey guys." He greeted, plopping down in one of the recliners that decorated the room.

"Hey. You look like sex." Caitlyn commented in amusement, earning a glare from Shane and a laugh from Jason.

"Only _you_ would assume that."

"I don't need to assume anything, Shaney." She smirked, causing Shane to glare at her once again.

"Where's Nate?" He asked, praying for a change of subject. Thankfully it worked.

"Oh, he's in the kitchen on his phone."

"Who's he talking to?"

"Nigel, I think." Jason commented.

Shane just shrugged, not thinking much of it as he moved his gaze towards the television that was playing a _Friends_ rerun.

Just a few minutes into the show, Nate came back into the room, his phone in his hand, and a not very happy expression on his face. Shane was the first to catch on to it.

"What's up, dude?"

Nate glanced sadly at him, then at Caitlyn, who had turned her attention to him as soon as she heard Shane acknowledge him.

Nate sighed, deeply before plopping onto the couch in between Jason and Caitlyn.

"That was Nigel on the phone, and—" But before he could finish, Mitchie sauntered out of her bedroom, still smiling, and hair still slightly wet from the shower, as she plopped into Shane's lap, where he instantly wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned his chin onto his shoulder while she leaned into his hold.

Finally, once she was comfortable, she noticed Nate's expression as he watched the exchange between Shane and Mitchie.

"What's wrong?" Her tone instantly went to worry.

"I just got off the phone with Nigel, and he said that they got the bus fixed and it's ready to go." He mumbled sadly, as tension instantly filled the room.

They all knew this was going to happen eventually, it just sucked that it was now happening, when they were all happy and completely content.

"And?" Shane spoke up, knowing that there was more to what Nate was saying, and he unconsciously tightened his grip on Mitchie, nuzzling his nose comfortingly against her hair.

"And he wants us back on the road tomorrow morning."

Silence once again overcame the group as they let it sink in. In less than 24 hours they would all be separated. Mitchie couldn't stand the thought, and she instinctively leaned farther into Shane's body, who eagerly held her as close as possible.

"Well," Jason spoke up, breaking the silence. "I guess we better make this day last." He tried to grin, but he was just as upset as everyone else.

"Yeah, Jase is right." Caitlyn said. "If we only have one day left, we better make the most of it. And I'm going to start right now, no matter how much it'll hurt later." Before anyone could question her, Caitlyn had turned to face Nate, she grabbed the collar of his shirt, forcefully pulled him closer to her and closed the gap between their faces and kissed him with all she had.

Once Caitlyn pulled away, both of them had priceless looks on their faces, causing the rest of the group to crack up, and instantly the tension that had formed was gone in an instant.

"So, what should we do? I mean, if we go anywhere we'll more than likely be spotted by camera's or fans." Shane said. "Or both."

"We don't need to go anywhere to have fun." Mitchie countered.

"Well, maybe you two don't." Caitlyn shot towards Shane and Mitchie, receiving yet another glare from Shane and a blush from Mitchie.

"You're such a jerk, Cait." Mitchie mumbled.

"She's right though," Jason defended. "We can all just hang out. I think I saw Guitar Hero in your game closet?" Jason hinted towards the girls. But Shane and Nate merely groaned.

"Dude, no way, no one can beat you at that." Nate complained, Shane nodding his head along with Nate's words.

"Hey, you guys haven't seen Caitlyn play. I think she might be a good match against Jason." Mitchie smirked, with Caitlyn nodding along.

"Oh yeah, I own that game."

"Well, we know you own the game, I saw it in your closet, but I still don't think you can beat me." Jason commented, oblivious to what Caitlyn meant.

The whole group, minus Jason, cracked up, leaving Jason completely confused.

"What?" He asked innocently.

"She means, she's really good at the game, Jay." Mitchie stated through her giggling.

Jason finally seemed to understand. "Ohhhh I get it. Oh you're so on, Gellar."

He challenged, laughing along with everyone else.

"Bring it, Jase."

* * *

Okay, so I hate to say it, but the next chapter is the last chapter of the story, but if you _really_ want it, there just might be a sequel…

But you gotta review and tell me if you want it or not.

I love hearing what you have to say anyways.

So pretty pretty please review.


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